AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Thomas? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your lines — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully purged where your car stands in St Thomas. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in St Thomas
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Which product, and roughly what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting EX4 1, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up Cowick Street.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
At a forecourt around St Thomas, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Nothing inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Redhills yesterday and not switched on remains the simple case, provided no one touches your key.
Once it is pulled in, the harm takes two forms. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in St Thomas with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is only inside that tank, nothing changes. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the Sainsbury's. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside that tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether your vehicle is in Ide or the heart of St Thomas, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across Devon your vehicle sits.
St Thomas: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts invite it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Hurrying, outside Bowhill Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Edina Mews. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Sawyer's Arms, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in Devon, St Thomas included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around St Thomas, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any may appear, maybe midway across St Thomas or coming back from St Thomas Pleasure Ground. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, under 3 miles from St Thomas, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across St Thomas to park beside St Thomas Methodist Church and a drive of under a mile for Exeter are such separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very unusual if it's caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around St Thomas?
A street beside Saint Thomas, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has come to rest in St Thomas, we come to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if your motor has run, because those answers settle the work.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains will not wash away unaided. Next, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of your vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, provided the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, outside Exeter St Thomas or on a driveway around St Thomas. The check before we leave is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About St Thomas
St Thomas is a suburban area in Devon, situated on the riverside near the city of Exeter. St Thomas has a relatively low elevation of around 9 metres, and its proximity to the River Exe has influenced its development. St Thomas is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing, which reflects its history of growth as a residential area. St Thomas is located close to other nearby places, including The Quay and Foxhayes.
St Thomas and Devon: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the EX postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs in St Thomas reach most of Devon too, The Quay, Exeter and Foxhayes included. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
No moving is needed. In St Thomas, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, be it in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around St Thomas?
Not one single price would be honest, because every job differs. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Church Hall.
That is why each call from St Thomas starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Given them, the range narrows to a single firm number.
You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
St Thomas: still next to your car?
Then, do nothing — that's the best move there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in St Thomas or anywhere across Devon.