South Petherton: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The harm starts once it is sucked through the lines — it will not burn, and it will not combine with diesel. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in South Petherton. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around South Petherton: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops someone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring right where you are. Say a TA13 5 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Do not do these:
- Shifting your vehicle even a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Even a short way up The Parade is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
Rolling your car off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever South Petherton forecourt you are on, the Esso included. At home, the car remains just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was meant to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same spot the intake sucks from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Watergore overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it will be first through once the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at some metals found in fuel components, working on any part it reaches till it is cleared completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. A motor left sitting around South Petherton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water content harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's inside your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue splits back out of your diesel, and so watering it can't work. That is why the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Yeabridge or the centre of South Petherton alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Wherever in Somerset your car has come to rest, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around South Petherton?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — may look the same. No one intends it; many designs allow it. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside South Petherton Church of England Infants and Pre School, because your dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken off. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Crown Lane, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by Brewers Arms.
Rented cars, brand-new vehicles, company motors, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Wherever you are in South Petherton or the rest of Somerset, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
South Petherton: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Dutchie's Orchard, say, or midway across South Petherton. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M5, under 15 miles from South Petherton, by the first junction and stop safely, not carrying on.
Hopping across South Petherton to the car park by William Blake Memorial Hall is one matter; heading towards Wells, under 25 miles away, is something else, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
We do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
South Petherton: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped in South Petherton — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside St Peter & St Paul — our van comes to the vehicle. The work depends on three answers, and we get first — which fluid was put in, the amount, and if the motor has turned over.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not wash away by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, then a check of your car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians turn up, if the engine hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. You drive off as soon as our technicians have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in South Petherton or in a space at Crewkerne. It is checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we leave. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About South Petherton
South Petherton is a town situated in the riverside setting of the River Parrett in Somerset, with an elevation of around 45 metres. South Petherton lies near several smaller settlements, including Hele, Broadmead, and Moor, and is approximately 19 miles from the city of Wells. South Petherton has a population of around 3735 people, predominantly living in detached housing. South Petherton is located in the South West region of England, about 122 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across South Petherton and Somerset
Throughout the TA postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around South Petherton reach most of Somerset too, Hele, Broadmead and Moor among them. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
A mobile service suits South Petherton, a riverside town: there's no need to take the car to us, because we drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in South Petherton?
Since each jobs differ, a single price wouldn't be fair. Three things move the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind Coke Memorial Methodist Church.
Ahead of a figure, not afterwards, every call from South Petherton begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and whether it ran. When they are answered, a range turns into a single fixed number.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
In South Petherton and still beside the vehicle?
Not touching your car is, then, the best move you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Somerset, South Petherton included.