AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Portaferry? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump begins pulling it. In Portaferry, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Portaferry, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BT22 1, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's wasted.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along B7041.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
The staff working at any Portaferry filling station — the the nearest petrol station included — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a drive in Ballyhornan yesterday evening and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when the motor turns, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in Portaferry with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is only in your tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water gives none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the another forecourt nearby, and the issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's inside that tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Shrigley or the middle of Portaferry.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across County Down the car is sitting.
Portaferry: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A bottle picked up when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The refill gets rushed outside the local primary school, after your dash flashed with a warning while the children were dropped off. A driver tips the container in at home, just off B7065, as the day ends. One more pattern: dim light, a pub car park by the pub in the village, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Portaferry or the rest of County Down, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Portaferry, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — coming back from the green space at the edge of the village, say, or midway across Portaferry. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep it off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M77, over 50 miles from Portaferry, at the next junction and stop safely, not driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Portaferry to the car park by the centre is a very different job from a run towards Belfast, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to flush once the motor has run, and we do all of it where the car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's caught early.
Portaferry: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road beside a street just off the centre, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the car has come to rest in Portaferry, we travel to it. What was put in, about how much, plus whether your motor has been run: our engineers check before all else, because those decide the work.
Next, draining the tank right there removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Your system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Not run? In that case expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. After that our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway in Portaferry. Before we leave, our technicians check it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Portaferry
Portaferry is a small coastal locality in County Down, situated on the shores of Strangford Lough. Portaferry sits at a low elevation of around 7 metres, with the surrounding landscape dominated by the lough and the nearby villages of Strangford and Cloghy. Portaferry is characterized by its terraced housing and quiet residential atmosphere, lying within commuting distance of Belfast. Portaferry is also close to other nearby places such as Killyleagh, and is around 300 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Portaferry and County Down
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Portaferry also cover the locations around it, Strangford, Cloghy and Killyleagh among them, and most of County Down beyond, across the BT postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're close to a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you fits Portaferry, a coastal area: you have no need to bring the car to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Portaferry: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things move the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind the far end of the built-up part.
For that in mind, each enquiry from Portaferry begins by asking the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of a figure. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Still beside the vehicle in Portaferry?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout County Down, Portaferry included.