AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shotton Colliery? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea 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. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Shotton Colliery, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the engine has been run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Shotton Colliery: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting DH6 2, or whichever street is nearest, and our van finds you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: the motor stays off.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Even a short stretch up Bridge Road is too far to drive the car.
- Beside the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
The attendants on duty at any Shotton Colliery forecourt — the JET among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On the drive, the car stays just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. 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 designed to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. A motor topped up on a drive in Shotton overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
After it is sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in Shotton Colliery with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's just inside that tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the BP. No harm is done as long as it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the following fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Shotton Colliery or out in Wheatley Hill, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Durham your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Shotton Colliery?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — can look the same. Nobody means it; many layouts invite it. Usually it's never the forecourt: a driver buys a container driving home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Shotton Primary School. Close to Bruce Glazier Terrace, a driver tips a container in at home in the evening. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside the pub in the village, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a fleet vehicle, or the spare car in a home with one of each fuels — the cars people use the least. Wherever you are in Shotton Colliery or the remainder of Durham, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Shotton Colliery?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through the fuel filter, along the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Bracken Hill Wood Local Nature Reserve, say, or part way across Shotton Colliery. When safe, pull over then switch it off — without turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the A1(M), under 10 miles from Shotton Colliery, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving for Durham, under 10 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Shotton Colliery to the car park by Shotton Community Hub. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has stopped, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Shotton Colliery: what it takes
A road by Durham Angel, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the vehicle has stopped in Shotton Colliery, we come to it. The work rests on three answers, which we get before all else — what got in, the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over.
Then your tank is cleared where your car stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't wash away on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the system with clean diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking bay at Horden or a drive in Shotton Colliery, that is where we start the engine and you head off. It is checked on new diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Shotton Colliery and where it is
Shotton Colliery is a locality situated on the riverside in County Durham, with an elevation of around 135 metres. Shotton Colliery lies near several other places, including Fleming Field, Haswell Moor, and Sandy Carrs, and is approximately 7.9 miles from the city of Durham. Shotton Colliery has a population of around 2439 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Shotton Colliery is located in the North East region of England, about 230.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Shotton Colliery included
Throughout the DH postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Shotton Colliery reach most of Durham as well, Fleming Field, Haswell Moor and Sandy Carrs among them. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service suits Shotton Colliery, a small village: you have no need to bring your car to us, since we drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Shotton Colliery: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so not one fixed quote is honest. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind St Saviour's Church.
Before a figure, never after, every enquiry from Shotton Colliery opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and whether it ran. Those replies shrink a range right down to one number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Shotton Colliery and still alongside the car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Shotton Colliery or wherever within Durham, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.