Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Potterne
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts until your motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Potterne, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Potterne
Do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Say a SN10 5 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the car: the motor remains off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is wasted.
- Even a short stretch up Whistley Road is too far to drive it.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
On a forecourt around Potterne, whether it is the Murco or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Devizes last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle sitting in Potterne. Just in the tank, it stays stable. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Esso. Blended into the diesel and left still, it's harmless at that stage; running the engine is the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, and so watering it won't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Townsend or the centre of Potterne alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside your tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever your car has come to rest in Wiltshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Potterne
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Wansdyke School the refill is hurried. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Church Corner. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car after dark, stopped in the car park by George & Dragon Inn.
The least known vehicles get it most — hire cars, new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle in a home with both fuels. Same mistake, same first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Potterne or the rest of Wiltshire.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Potterne, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
Expect rough running, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Ryeleaze Field, perhaps, or midway across Potterne. When safe, stop and turn everything off — without turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M4, under 15 miles from Potterne, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Potterne to the car park by Potterne Village Hall is a very different job from a run towards Bath, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Potterne?
A road by St Mary's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has come to rest in Potterne, our engineers come to it. What went in, about how much, plus if your motor has been run: we check first, since those decide the job.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of the car. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Lastly, your system is bled with new diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by Melksham or a drive in Potterne, that is where we start it and you head off. Before we go, we check it is running correctly with clean diesel in. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Potterne itself
Potterne is a village in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 87 metres, approximately 15 miles from the city of Bath. Potterne has a population of around 1543 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Potterne is located near several other small settlements, including Potterne Wick, Worton, and Poulshot, in the South West region of England. Potterne is about 82 miles west of London, making it a rural community with some commuter links to the capital.
AdBlue drains around Potterne and across Wiltshire
Potterne Wick, Worton and Poulshot are among the towns around Potterne that the same teams reach, along with much of Wiltshire beyond, throughout the SN postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
A mobile service fits Potterne, a rural village: you have no need to bring your car to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Potterne: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, and so not one fixed price would be fair. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Porch House.
Before a quote, not after, every enquiry from Potterne opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and whether it ran. Given them, a range shrinks to a single firm number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Next to the car in Potterne, right now?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Potterne or anywhere in Wiltshire.