Rosemary Lane: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts until your engine sucks it round. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully rinsed where the car stands in Rosemary Lane. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Rosemary Lane: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting EX15 3, or just the name of a street nearby, and so call from the car.
Never do these:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so leave the car off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Even a short way up Gray's Lane is too far to drive the car.
- Draining your tank on your own beside the road isn't worth trying.
Get the attendants to help you roll your car away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt around Rosemary Lane, whether it's the Monument Fuels or elsewhere. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a dedicated tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle filled on a drive in Millhayes yesterday evening and not started since is the simple case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is cleared out. By daybreak, a car sitting in Rosemary Lane with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it is only inside your tank, it doesn't. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Biscombe or the centre of Rosemary Lane equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Devon the car is sitting.
Rosemary Lane: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Hemyock Primary School the refill is rushed. Close to Gray's Hill, someone pours a container in on the drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Half Moon Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet car, or the other motor in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people use the least. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to the same mistake, wherever around Rosemary Lane or the rest of Devon you are.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rosemary Lane?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Through the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
You may notice your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Bennett's Wood or halfway across Rosemary Lane. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M5, under 3 miles from Rosemary Lane, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
A quick hop across Rosemary Lane to the car park by Clayhidon Village Hall is one thing; driving for Exeter, under 25 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Noticed soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Rosemary Lane
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Rosemary Lane: a side street near St Andrew's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, and if the motor has been run: we ask before all else, since those shape the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is drained, right there. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the engine has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes last. Then our engineers start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking bay at Tiverton Parkway or a driveway in Rosemary Lane. The test before our engineers head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Rosemary Lane
Rosemary Lane is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Devon, with a elevation of 186 metres. Rosemary Lane lies near several other small settlements, including Clayhidon, Carlingwark, and Ashculme, and is approximately 20 miles from the city of Exeter. Rosemary Lane is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Rosemary Lane is located in a scenic area, with the River Culm flowing nearby.
AdBlue drains around Rosemary Lane and across Devon
Throughout the EX postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs in Rosemary Lane reach most of Devon too, Clayhidon, Carlingwark and Ashculme among them. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Rosemary Lane is a rural hamlet, 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 engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Rosemary Lane: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, so not one fixed quote is fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind The Garages.
Ahead of a quote, never after, each enquiry from Rosemary Lane opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and if the engine ran. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single firm figure.
You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Rosemary Lane: still beside your car?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Rosemary Lane or anywhere in Devon, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.