Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Saltcotes
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition as well. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump begins pulling it. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Saltcotes. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Saltcotes: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Remove your keys, which stops someone switching the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and about how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Call just where you are. Quote a FY8 4 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance down Saltcotes Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Saltcotes filling station — the EG On The Move Lytham among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
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 inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was meant to travel through one.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the very spot the pickup draws from. A vehicle filled on a drive in Higher Ballam overnight and left unstarted is the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once the motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; and, since it eats at some metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in Saltcotes makes it worse. Inside that tank only, time does nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and the issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in that tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the next fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Saltcotes or out in Bryning, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Lancashire your car is sitting.
Saltcotes: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; many layouts invite it. A container bought when heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical route.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside St Peter's Catholic Primary School, Lytham, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to Cheltenham Crescent. One more pattern: dim light, the car park outside The Railway Hotel, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it most — hire cars, new ones, company cars, and the spare vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types. Same slip, an identical first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Saltcotes or the remainder of Lancashire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Saltcotes?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Mornington Meadow or halfway across Saltcotes. Once you safely can, pull over then switch it off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M55, under 5 miles from Saltcotes, by the next junction and park safely, not driving on.
A quick hop across Saltcotes to the car park by YMCA Lytham Sports Centre is one matter; driving towards Preston, under 15 miles away, is something else, because every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. When it's noticed quickly, lasting damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Saltcotes?
Anywhere it has stopped in Saltcotes — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Hope Church Lytham — our van travels to your car. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has been run, since those replies determine this work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one after that tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned right through because what remains will not wash out unaided. Next, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of your vehicle. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the engine hasn't run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, outside Lytham or on a drive in Saltcotes. It's checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians go. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Saltcotes and where it is
Saltcotes is a coastal suburban area in Lancashire, situated near the towns of Lytham and St Annes. Saltcotes lies at a low elevation of around 7 metres, close to the Irish Sea coast. Saltcotes has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Saltcotes is located near several other communities, including Moss Side and Warton Bank, and is within commuting distance of Preston.
Saltcotes and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Lytham, Moss Side and Warton Bank are among the places near Saltcotes that the same vans reach, along with much of Lancashire beyond, throughout the FY postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
Anywhere your car stands — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Saltcotes, a residential suburb, well.
Saltcotes: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because each jobs vary, a flat figure would not be honest. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind Lytham St Annes & Fylde Sea Cadets.
What went in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Saltcotes enquiry begins with precisely that, ahead of any figure, not afterwards. Their replies narrow the range right down to one figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still alongside the vehicle in Saltcotes?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Saltcotes or wherever in Lancashire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.