AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in St Stephen? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only starts once the pump begins pulling it. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in St Stephen. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, St Stephen: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so don't throw it out.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting PL26 7, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Do not do these:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift the car.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts the pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not thin it.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Gwindra Road.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
The attendants working at any St Stephen forecourt — the the nearest petrol station included — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Carloggas overnight and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it would be first through once the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches till it is cleared completely. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow passages. A motor left sitting in St Stephen with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Shell, and this issue is diluted fuel. No damage comes as long as it stays unused, blended into the diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits again — and the next tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of St Stephen or out in Stepaside, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Cornwall your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around St Stephen?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Stephen Churchtown Academy the top-up is rushed. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, right off Terras Road, as the day ends. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside Queens Head, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever around Cornwall, St Stephen as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in St Stephen?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may appear, perhaps midway across St Stephen or returning from St. Stephen-in-Brannel Recreation Ground. No starting it again to test: stop when it is safe, then turn everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M5, over 50 miles from St Stephen, by the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
A quick hop across St Stephen to the car park by St Stephen in Brannel Church is one thing; heading for Truro, under 10 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been run. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
St Stephen: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a street beside St Stephen Community Centre & Social Club, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in St Stephen, and our van comes to it. The work rests on three replies, which we ask for before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether the motor has run.
Then the tank is emptied where the car stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of the car comes last, after clean diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, if necessary, swapped. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the system is bled with new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at St Columb Road or on a driveway in St Stephen. Before leaving, we confirm it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. We do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About St Stephen and where it is
St Stephen is a village in Cornwall, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 95 metres. St Stephen lies approximately 9 miles from Truro and is surrounded by nearby places such as Terras, Treneague, and Trethosa. St Stephen has a population of around 1797 people and predominantly features detached housing. St Stephen is located in the South West region of England, about 222.5 miles from London.
St Stephen and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the PL postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around St Stephen serve most of Cornwall as well, Terras, Treneague and Trethosa among them. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A van that comes to you suits St Stephen, a village: you have no need to take the car to us, since we drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
St Stephen: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat price would be honest, because every job differs. Three things move the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Resugga Castle.
That is why every call from St Stephen starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. With them, a range narrows to one fixed number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Next to the car in St Stephen, still?
Then, do nothing — that's the best step available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in St Stephen or anywhere within Cornwall.