AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rickinghall? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble starts once it is pulled through your pump — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully rinsed where the vehicle stands in Rickinghall. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rickinghall
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which product, and about what volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a IP22 1 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Moving your car just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along The Street.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
At a forecourt around Rickinghall, whether it's the Gulf Oil or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't blend. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Stubbings Green last night and not started stays the straightforward case, provided no one turns your key.
After it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. A motor left sitting around Rickinghall with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that's the whole issue. Harm just comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left in that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle is in Hinderclay or the centre of Rickinghall, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Suffolk the car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Rickinghall
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — can look the same. No one intends it; many designs invite it. A container picked up while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. The top-up is rushed outside St Botolph's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Wheatfields. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Bell Inn.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare car of a family with one of each fuel types. Wherever across Suffolk, Rickinghall as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Rickinghall, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Rickinghall Recreation Ground, or part way across Rickinghall, the engine might go lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or stall. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave it off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M11, under 50 miles from Rickinghall, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Rickinghall to park beside Botesdale War Memorial and a drive of under 25 miles towards Norwich are very separate jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been run. If it's noticed early, permanent damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Rickinghall?
Wherever it has come to rest around Rickinghall — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside Rickinghall Village Sign — our van travels to the vehicle. Which fluid was put in, about how much, plus if the motor has been run: we ask before all else, since those decide the work.
Then that tank is drained where the vehicle waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, the system is bled with new diesel. After that we start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay by Diss or a driveway around Rickinghall. The check before we head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. As the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Rickinghall, for a moment
Rickinghall is a rural village in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of 33 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Rickinghall lies near the villages of Botesdale and Botesdale Green, and is connected to the nearby city of Norwich, which is approximately 23.5 miles away. Rickinghall is also within commuting distance to London, being around 74.9 miles from the capital. Rickinghall has a population of around 989 residents.
AdBlue drains across Rickinghall and Suffolk
Botesdale, Candle Street and Botesdale Green are among the towns around Rickinghall that the same vans serve, together with most of Suffolk further out, throughout the IP postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
Rickinghall is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Rickinghall?
No single price could be fair, because each job differs. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Botesdale Village Sign.
Before any quote, not afterwards, every call from Rickinghall opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and if the engine ran. Those replies shrink a range right down to one number.
Before a van heads out, you are told the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
In Rickinghall and still next to the vehicle?
In that case, do nothing — that is the best move there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Rickinghall or anywhere within Suffolk, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.