AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Scole? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes once the pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Scole, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Scole
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting IP21 4, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Moving the car just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way along Bungay Road.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
On a forecourt in Scole, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. On your own driveway, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Stuston yesterday and not started stays the simple case, as long as nobody touches your key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Scole makes it worse. In your tank only, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water part harms them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Gulf Oil and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and left inside that tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the next fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Scole or out in Frenze, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits only in the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere the car has come to rest around Norfolk.
Scole: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill is rushed outside Scole Church of England Primary Academy, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were taken off. Near Norwich Road, a driver tips a bottle in on the drive in the evening. One more version: dim light, the car park by The Crossways Inn, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet ones, and the spare car of a home with both fuels. Keep it off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere in Scole or the rest of Norfolk you happen to be.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Scole?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Maybe returning from Scole Pocket Park, or midway across Scole, your motor may run rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M11, under 50 miles from Scole, by the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Scole to park beside Scole Village Sign and a drive of under 25 miles for Norwich are such separate jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where the car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. When it's noticed quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Scole: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street by Saint Andrew's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has stopped around Scole, we travel to it. What was put in, about how much, plus if your motor has turned over: we ask before all else, since those decide the work.
Then the tank is drained where your car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since what remains won't flush away by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, if your engine has not run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Diss or a drive in Scole, that is where we fire it up and you head off. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on new diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Scole itself
Scole is a village in Norfolk, situated on the River Waveney at an elevation of 29 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Scole lies near the villages of Waterloo and Billingford, and is close to Scole Common. Scole is located 19 miles from Norwich and 80.7 miles from London, making it a rural community with easy access to the city. Scole has a population of approximately 1037 residents.
Scole and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the IP postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Scole reach most of Norfolk as well, Waterloo, Scole Common and Billingford among them. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Scole is a village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Scole: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs vary, a flat figure would not be fair. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Dragon.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Scole begins by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Given them, the range shrinks to one firm number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside the vehicle in Scole, still?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Norfolk, Scole too.