Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sandford
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your engine off and keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. In Sandford, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Sandford: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so don't bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting EX17 4, or whichever street lies closest, and the van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance down Rose and Crown Hill is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Sandford, whether it's the Green Earth Biodiesel or elsewhere. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in West Town overnight and not started since counts as the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking any part it reaches till it is cleared from the system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny passages. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Sandford with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is just inside the tank, it doesn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the main fault. No damage comes while it sits put, mixed into the diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, and so watering it can't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning the key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Crediton or the centre of Sandford alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Devon your vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Sandford?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Sandford School. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, right off The Square, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by Lamb Inn.
Hired vehicles, new cars, company cars, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Wherever you are around Sandford or the rest of Devon, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Sandford?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and lines.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Sandford AFC or halfway across Sandford. Once safe, pull over then turn it off — without turning it on again to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M5, under 10 miles from Sandford, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so driving for Exeter, under 10 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Sandford to the car park by Sanford Cinema. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. If it's caught early, long-term damage is very rare.
Sandford: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road near Sandford Congregational Church, a drive, a layby or a filling station in Sandford, and the van comes to it. The work rests on three answers, which our technicians get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when your tank is drained, on the spot. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing the vehicle comes at the end, after clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter is cleaned or, if necessary, replaced. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming your system with new diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by Crediton or on a drive around Sandford. Before we leave, we confirm it is running correctly with clean diesel in. As the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Sandford and where it is
Sandford is a small village in Devon, situated inland at an elevation of 72 metres, approximately 8 miles from the city of Exeter. Sandford has a population of around 637 people, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. Sandford is close to nearby places such as Lower Creedy, West Sandford, and Upton Hellions, and is located in the South West region of England, about 160 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Sandford and Devon
Over the EX postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Sandford reach most of Devon as well, Lower Creedy, West Sandford and Upton Hellions included. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than assuming, so ring.
No moving is needed. In Sandford, a rural village, a van that comes to you fits: the car is emptied where it stands, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Sandford?
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind St Swithin's Church.
With that in mind, each call from Sandford begins with the same trio — what was put in, how much, if the engine ran — before a figure. Given them, the range narrows to one fixed figure.
You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the vehicle in Sandford?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful move open to you. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran is everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Devon, Sandford included.