AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Spilsby? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition too. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully flushed where your car stands in Spilsby. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Spilsby
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly what quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will know.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting PE23 5, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts the pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Queen Street.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you roll the vehicle off the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Spilsby, whether it's the Archways or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was meant to go that way.
It does not blend. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Toynton All Saints last night and not started remains the simple one, provided nobody touches the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on any part it touches till it's cleared from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow passages. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight in Spilsby leaves it worse. Inside the tank only, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel running past them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Total, and this issue is thinned fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat at that stage; running the motor is the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters 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 Ashby by Partney or the middle of Spilsby.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever across Lincolnshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Spilsby
It is not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It mostly occurs at home, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Spilsby Primary School. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Market Street. One more version: darkness, the car park by Red Lion, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to the same slip, anywhere in Spilsby or the rest of Lincolnshire you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Spilsby?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may show up, maybe part way across Spilsby or coming back from Moat Holt. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M180, under 50 miles from Spilsby, at the first junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Spilsby to the car park by Buttercross is a very different job from a run towards Lincoln, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Spilsby?
Wherever it has stopped in Spilsby — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by Spilsby Methodist Church — the van comes to the vehicle. The work rests on three answers, which our technicians ask for before all else — what got in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue will not wash out unaided. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to bleed the system on new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, by Thorpe Culvert or on a drive around Spilsby. Before leaving, we make sure it is running properly with new diesel in. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Spilsby itself
Spilsby is a small town in the East Midlands region of England, situated in the county of Lincolnshire at an elevation of 48 metres. Spilsby lies approximately 26 miles east of Lincoln and 115 miles north of London, surrounded by nearby villages such as Hundleby, Halton Holegate, and Partney. Spilsby has a population of around 3473 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Spilsby remains a typical example of a rural market town in Lincolnshire, with a mix of old and new buildings.
Spilsby and Lincolnshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Hundleby, Halton Holegate and Partney are among the places around Spilsby that the same vans reach, together with most of Lincolnshire beyond, over the PE postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A mobile service suits Spilsby, a town: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Spilsby?
No single figure could be honest, since every job is different. Three things move the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind The Original Factory Shop.
What went in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Spilsby enquiry begins with precisely that, before any figure, not afterwards. Once they are answered, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Spilsby and still beside the car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Spilsby or anywhere in Lincolnshire, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.