AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Prudhoe? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens till your motor pulls it round. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle sits around Prudhoe. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Prudhoe, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so do not throw it away.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a NE42 5 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Do not:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your car: the motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along B6395.
- Emptying that tank on your own beside the road is not worth trying.
At a forecourt around Prudhoe, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the car away from the pump. On that drive, the vehicle stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. No part in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in Ovingham yesterday evening and not started since is the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when the engine turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it remains in there. Overnight, a car sitting around Prudhoe with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is just in that tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Gulf and you have a problem of thin fuel. Blended through the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; using your motor does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. Whether the car sits in Eltringham or the centre of Prudhoe, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across Northumberland the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Prudhoe: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — may look the same. No one intends it; plenty of layouts allow it. Mostly it's not the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Prudhoe West Academy, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off South Road. Otherwise, in dim light outside Dr Syntax, the car gets refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company cars, and the spare motor in a family with both fuel types. Wherever in Northumberland, Prudhoe as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Prudhoe: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. It's been pulled through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Knows Wood or halfway across Prudhoe. When safe, pull over then turn everything off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the Central Motorway East, under 10 miles from Prudhoe, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
A quick hop across Prudhoe to the car park by Prudhoe Methodist Church is one matter; driving for Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Prudhoe: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped in Prudhoe — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road beside St Mary Magdalene Parish Church — our van comes to the vehicle. Three replies decide the job, so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid got in, about the amount, plus if the motor has run.
Next, emptying the tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. 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. Next, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the car. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Bleeding your system with clean diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by the nearest station or on a drive around Prudhoe. The check before we head off is that it runs properly on new diesel. The whole job is done where your car is, so 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 Prudhoe
Prudhoe is a town situated on the River Tyne in Northumberland, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Prudhoe sits at an elevation of around 102 metres, approximately 9.7 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne. Prudhoe has a population of around 11,893 people and is located near other communities such as Low Prudhoe and West Wylam. Prudhoe is part of the wider Tyne Valley area, with easy access to the regional centre of Newcastle upon Tyne.
AdBlue drains around Prudhoe and across Northumberland
AdBlue jobs around Prudhoe are passed to vans that cover the towns near it — Low Prudhoe, West Wylam as well as Edgewell — and most of Northumberland beyond, throughout NE postcodes. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you fits Prudhoe, a riverside town: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Prudhoe: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St Mary Magdalenes Parish & Church Hall.
That is why each call from Prudhoe starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. With those replies, a range narrows to one firm figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the car in Prudhoe?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Prudhoe or anywhere in Northumberland.