AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Silsoe? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it's sucked through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't blend with diesel. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Silsoe. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Silsoe: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting MK45 4, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up High Street.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
On a forecourt in Silsoe, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car clear of the pump. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean 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 combine. After it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Water End overnight and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it would be first through once your motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Silsoe with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's just in that tank, it doesn't. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Harvest Energy and you have a fault of thin fuel. Blended into your diesel and left still, it is harmless for now; using your motor is the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Hall End or the middle of Silsoe.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside that tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere your car has stopped around Bedfordshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Silsoe
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. The top-up gets hurried outside Silsoe CofE VC Lower School, because the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Poplar Close. Or someone new to that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Star and Garter.
The least known cars get it the most — rentals, new ones, fleet cars, and the other car of a family with one of each fuel types. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Silsoe or the remainder of Bedfordshire you are.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Silsoe?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Silsoe Nature Reserve & Park, perhaps, or part way across Silsoe. When safe, stop then turn everything off — with no turning it on again to test. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M1, under 5 miles from Silsoe, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system. That's why crossing Silsoe to park near Silsoe Village Hall and a drive of under 15 miles for Milton Keynes are very separate jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Silsoe: what it takes
A road by Saint James the Great, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has stopped around Silsoe, our technicians travel to it. Which fluid went in, roughly the quantity, plus if the engine has turned over: we check first, since those shape the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains will not wash out unaided. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Finally, your system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Flitwick or a driveway in Silsoe, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. It's checked on new diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers head off. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Silsoe and where it is
Silsoe is a village in Bedfordshire, situated in a rural area with a mix of arable land and woodland, and is characterized by its detached housing stock. Silsoe sits at an elevation of around 68 metres, near the villages of West End and Wardhedges, and is located approximately 14 miles from Milton Keynes. Silsoe has a population of around 1671 residents, and its location allows for relatively easy access to London, which is about 37 miles to the south. Silsoe is also close to the village of Hollington, and together they form a small community in the Bedfordshire countryside.
AdBlue drains across Silsoe and Bedfordshire
Over the MK postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs in Silsoe reach most of Bedfordshire too, West End, Wardhedges and Hollington included. Assuming won't help by a county line or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
Silsoe is a rural village, and a call-out 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 is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Silsoe?
There is no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. What changes the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Silsoe Community Sports Centre.
That's why each call from Silsoe starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Their answers shrink the range down to one number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Silsoe: still beside the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Silsoe or wherever in Bedfordshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.