Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Scale Hall
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until the engine sucks it round. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Scale Hall. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Scale Hall, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take your keys out.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting LA1 2, or whatever street lies closest, and our van reaches you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance down Bowland Drive.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
Moving your car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Scale Hall forecourt you are on, the Asda or any other. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Marsh last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches till it is removed from your system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow channels. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Scale Hall with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is only in that tank, nothing changes. Then there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Whether the car sits in Torrisholme or the heart of Scale Hall, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't stay blended, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere in Lancashire the car has stopped.
Scale Hall: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Lancaster Ryelands Primary School the refill is hurried. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Scale Hall Lane. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Wagon & Horses.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the spare vehicle of a home with both fuel types — the cars drivers know the least. Wherever you are in Scale Hall or the rest of Lancashire, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Scale Hall: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Ryelands Nature Reserve, say, or part way across Scale Hall. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M6, under 3 miles from Scale Hall, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, so driving towards Lancaster, under a mile away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Scale Hall to the car park by Vale of Lune RUFC. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it is noticed quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Scale Hall: what it takes
The car remains put, whether that is a road beside St Chad's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Scale Hall, and our van travels to it. The job rests on three answers, which we get before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if your engine has turned over.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed right through since what remains will not flush out by itself. Testing the car follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, the system is primed with clean diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Scale Hall or in a bay outside Lancaster. It's checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Scale Hall itself
Scale Hall is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Lancaster in Lancashire, situated near the coast at an elevation of around 14 metres. Scale Hall sits close to the nearby places of Ryelands, Hare Runs, and Skerton, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Scale Hall is a relatively small community, with a population of approximately 6161 residents, and is within walking distance of Lancaster city centre.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Scale Hall included
AdBlue jobs in Scale Hall go to teams that cover the places around it — Ryelands, Hare Runs as well as Skerton — and much of Lancashire further out, across LA postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Scale Hall is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Scale Hall
Since the callouts vary, a flat price would not be fair. The price changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Salt Ayre Leisure Centre.
Ahead of a figure, not afterwards, every enquiry from Scale Hall begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, and whether it ran. Their replies shrink the range right down to a single number.
The price is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside your car in Scale Hall?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Scale Hall or wherever within Lancashire.