Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pocklington
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble starts once it's sucked through the pump — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully flushed where the car stands in Pocklington. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pocklington: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so don't throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting YO42 2, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Even a short distance down St Peters Square is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
The staff on duty at any Pocklington forecourt — the BP included — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. At home, the vehicle stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. From a separate tank it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles low where the intake takes its fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Barmby Moor last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through if the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches till it's cleared from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. A motor left standing around Pocklington with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and the issue is thinned fuel. No damage comes as long as it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your motor works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits back out — and the next fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Pocklington or out in Allerthorpe, costs more than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across East Riding of Yorkshire your car has stopped.
Pocklington: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Many cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Pocklington Junior School the refill is hurried. A driver tips the container in at home, just off Market Place, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Feathers Hotel.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company motor, or the spare motor in a family with both fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. Wherever around East Riding of Yorkshire, Pocklington included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it switched off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pocklington?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked along, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might appear, maybe midway across Pocklington or returning from Jubilee Garden. When you safely can, stop and switch everything off — without restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Pocklington sits under 15 miles from the M62; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Pocklington to the car park by Pocklington Arts Centre is one matter; driving for York, under 15 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it's noticed soon.
Pocklington: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car stays where it is, whether that's a road near All Saints Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Pocklington, and the van travels to it. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, since those replies decide the work.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of your car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we turn up, if your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. Whether it's a parking bay at Howden or a driveway in Pocklington, that is where we fire it up and you head off. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Pocklington and where it is
Pocklington is a town situated on the banks of the Pocklington Beck in the East Riding of Yorkshire, with a mix of old and new buildings, including many detached houses. Pocklington lies approximately 12 miles from York, making it a commuter town for those working in the city. Pocklington has a population of around 10,124 people and is surrounded by nearby places such as Canal Head and Kilnwick Percy. Pocklington is located at an elevation of 36 metres above sea level, in a relatively low-lying area of the Yorkshire landscape.
Pocklington and East Riding of Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Canal Head, Kilnwick Percy and Broad Ings are among the towns around Pocklington that the same teams serve, together with most of East Riding of Yorkshire further out, over the YO postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Pocklington is a riverside town, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Pocklington?
Each job is different, and so no single price is fair. What moves the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind The Acorn Gallery.
That's why every call from Pocklington starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. While the van is travelling, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Pocklington: still beside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Pocklington or anywhere within East Riding of Yorkshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran.