AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Pott Row? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Pott Row. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Pott Row: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call right where you are. Say a PE32 1 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way up Cliffe-En-Howe Road is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
The attendants on duty at any Pott Row filling station — the the nearest petrol station among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of it was intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the pickup takes its supply from. A motor topped up on a drive in Ashwicken overnight and not started since is the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car sitting in Pott Row. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water gives none of that, which is a separate form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and the problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, so watering it can't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Bawsey or the centre of Pott Row equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Norfolk your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Pott Row
Many vehicles place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. No one intends it. Mostly it is never the filling station: someone picks up a container driving home and pours it in at home.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Holly Meadows School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Philip Rudd Court. Else, in dim light by Three Horseshoes, your vehicle gets refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company vehicle, or the other car in a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use least. Wherever around Norfolk, Pott Row included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Pott Row?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may appear, maybe midway across Pott Row or coming back from Roydon Common. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep it off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the A1(M), under 50 miles from Pott Row, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Hopping across Pott Row to the car park by Pott Row Village Sign is one matter; heading for Ely, under 50 miles away, is something else, because every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it is caught quickly.
Pott Row: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped around Pott Row — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside Pott Row Methodist Church — the van travels to the car. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if the engine has been run, because those answers determine this work.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed if it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of your car. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your motor has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the last step. Whether it's a parking space by Kings Lynn or a drive around Pott Row, that is where our engineers fire it up and you head off. We make sure it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Pott Row, briefly
Pott Row is a small village in Norfolk, situated inland at a low elevation of around 16 metres. Pott Row lies near the villages of Roydon, Congham, and Grimston, and is approximately 27 miles from the city of Ely. Pott Row has a population of around 549 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Pott Row included
Throughout the PE postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Pott Row reach much of Norfolk as well, Roydon, Congham and Grimston included. Close to a boundary, or somewhere tricky to explain? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Pott Row, a rural village, well.
Pott Row: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so no fixed quote is honest. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind All Saints.
Ahead of any figure, not afterwards, every call from Pott Row opens with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside the car around Pott Row, still?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran is all we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Norfolk, Pott Row too.