AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pottington? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition as well. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it's pulled through your lines — it will not burn, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Pottington, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the engine has been run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pottington
Do these:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting EX31 1, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts the pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Even a short way along Braunton Road is too far to drive it.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it yourself.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll your vehicle away from the island if you are on a forecourt around Pottington, whether it's the BP or somewhere else. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its supply from. A motor topped up on a drive in Sticklepath overnight and not started since is the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when the motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Pottington with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's just in the tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Asda's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that's the main fault. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it is no threat for now; using your motor does the damage.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, so thinning it won't work. Hence the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Raleigh or the centre of Pottington alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only inside your tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, anywhere the car has stopped around Devon.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Pottington
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. No one intends it. It usually takes place outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Pilton Bluecoat Church of England Academy, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. Close to Barnstaple Western Bypass, someone tips a container in on the drive in the evening. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park by Windsor Arms, and a driver using that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company ones, and the other car in a family with one of each fuels. An identical slip, same first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you are in Pottington or the remainder of Devon.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pottington?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through your filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any might show up, perhaps part way across Pottington or coming back from Pilton Park. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off rather than restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Pottington lies under 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Hopping across Pottington to the car park by Mill Road is one matter; heading towards Exeter, under 50 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it is noticed soon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Pottington: what it takes
A street beside North Devon Karting Centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Pottington, our technicians come to it. Three replies decide the work, and so first our technicians ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, and if the engine has run.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. The system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided your engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the system with clean diesel comes last. Whether it's a parking space by Barnstaple or a driveway around Pottington, that is where our engineers start the engine and you drive off. The test before our technicians head off is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Pottington, briefly
Pottington is a suburban area located on the riverside in Devon, with a low elevation of around 5 metres. Pottington sits near the towns of Pilton and Barnstaple, and is approximately 34 miles from the city of Exeter. Pottington has a population of around 1748 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Pottington is situated in the South West region of England, about 173 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Pottington included
Throughout the EX postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Pottington serve much of Devon as well, Pilton, Bradiford and Barnstaple among them. Assuming doesn't help by a county line or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Pottington is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Pottington
Every job is different, so no fixed quote would be fair. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind St Mary the Virgin.
What was put in, how much, and if it ran: every Pottington call begins by asking precisely that, before a figure, never afterwards. With them, the range narrows to one fixed figure.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still alongside the vehicle around Pottington?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Pottington or anywhere within Devon.