Shotley Bridge: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully cleaned where your car stands around Shotley Bridge. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Shotley Bridge: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can see.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting DH8 0, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: your motor remains off.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch down Benfieldside Road is too far to drive the car.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car away from the island if you are on a forecourt in Shotley Bridge, whether it's the Tesco or somewhere else. At home, your car stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was meant to travel through one.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It drops, because it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Bridgehill yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. 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, and so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. A vehicle left sitting around Shotley Bridge with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Esso, and this issue is diluted fuel. Blended into the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless at that stage; using your engine is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Whether your car sits in East Law or the centre of Shotley Bridge, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever across Durham the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Shotley Bridge
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it is not the filling station: a driver buys a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Hurrying, outside Shotley Bridge Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the car. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, just off Woodlands Road, as the day ends. One more version: darkness, a pub car park by Kings Head Social Club, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a fleet motor, or the other car in a family with both fuel types — the cars people use least. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to an identical slip, anywhere around Shotley Bridge or the rest of Durham you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Shotley Bridge?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Shotley Bridge Cricket Club, perhaps, or midway across Shotley Bridge. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Shotley Bridge lies under 15 miles from the A1(M); if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Shotley Bridge to the car park by Our Lady of the Rosary is a very different job from a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it is caught early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Shotley Bridge: what it takes
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Shotley Bridge: a side street close to Shotley and Benfieldside Tennis Club, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What was put in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run: our technicians check before all else, since those shape the job.
Then your tank is drained where your car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not clear away by itself. A test of the vehicle follows at the end, once clean diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, where needed, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Stocksfield or a driveway around Shotley Bridge, that is where we start the car and you set off. Before we go, our technicians check it's running correctly with clean diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Shotley Bridge and where it is
Shotley Bridge is a suburban area in County Durham, situated on the banks of the River Derwent at an elevation of 147 metres. Shotley Bridge lies approximately 12 miles southwest of Newcastle upon Tyne and is surrounded by nearby places such as Benfieldside, Blackhill, and Daisy Hill. Shotley Bridge has a population of around 4203 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Shotley Bridge is located about 243 miles north of London, in the North East region of England.
Shotley Bridge and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Shotley Bridge go to teams that serve the places near it — Benfieldside, Blackhill as well as Daisy Hill — and much of Durham beyond, throughout DH postcodes. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
No towing is needed. In Shotley Bridge, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the car is drained where it stands, be it on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Shotley Bridge
No flat price would be honest, because each job differs. Three things move the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight spot behind St Cuthbert's Church, Benfieldside.
Before any quote, never after, each enquiry from Shotley Bridge begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, plus if it ran. With those replies, a range narrows to one fixed number.
Before a van sets off, you hear our price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. While the van is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Shotley Bridge: still alongside the car?
Then, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Durham, Shotley Bridge included.