Rearsby: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the motor off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. In Rearsby, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Rearsby, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Pull the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not bin it out.
- Call just where you are. Say a LE7 4 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Even a short way up Brookside is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying that tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
On a forecourt around Rearsby, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Queniborough last night and hasn't been started since. The liquid waits at the foot of the tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through once your motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come from there. 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 labouring on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle parked around Rearsby. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a second form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that's the main problem. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Brooksby or the middle of Rearsby.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere around Leicestershire your vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Rearsby
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two can appear identical. No one means it. Mostly it's never the filling station: someone picks up a container heading home and tips it in at home.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Michael & All Angels Church of England Primary School the top-up is rushed. Near Brook Street, someone pours a container in at home after work. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Wheel, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere across Leicestershire, Rearsby included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rearsby, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may appear, perhaps midway across Rearsby or returning from Bleak Moor. Once safe, stop then turn everything off — with no turning it on again to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Rearsby lies under 10 miles from the M1; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Rearsby to the car park by St Michael and All Angels is a very different job from a run towards Leicester, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after your engine has been running. Long-term damage is very rare if it is caught early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Rearsby: what it takes
The car stays where it is, whether that is a street near Rearsby Village Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Rearsby, and the van comes to it. What got in, about how much, and if your engine has turned over: we ask before all else, since those decide the job.
Next, emptying the tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since what remains won't wash away unaided. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, outside Syston or on a drive in Rearsby. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. We do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Rearsby, for a moment
Rearsby is a small village in Leicestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 59 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Rearsby lies approximately 7.4 miles east of Leicester and 92.5 miles north of London, near the villages of East Goscote and Thrussington. Rearsby has a population of around 728 residents, living in a rural setting with nearby Ratcliffe on the Wreake also close by. Rearsby remains a quiet residential community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across Leicestershire, Rearsby included
Throughout the LE postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Rearsby serve most of Leicestershire too, East Goscote, Thrussington and Ratcliffe on the Wreake included. Assuming doesn't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
No moving is needed. In Rearsby, a village, a mobile service fits: your car is emptied on the spot, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Rearsby: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so not one single quote would be fair. What moves the price is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Holy Trinity.
Before any quote, never after, every call from Rearsby begins with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Given those replies, a range narrows to one fixed figure.
The price is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Next to the vehicle in Rearsby, still?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best move there is. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Rearsby or anywhere around Leicestershire.