AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stockton? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. In Stockton, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Stockton: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CV47 8, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Moving your car just a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up School Street.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the verge.
The staff on duty at any Stockton forecourt — the BP included — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of it was intended to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Broadwell yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward one, provided nobody turns your key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a car sitting around Stockton. Only inside your tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and this issue is thinned fuel. No harm is done while it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Long Itchington or the centre of Stockton alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just in the tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has stopped across Warwickshire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Stockton?
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. No one means it. A container picked up while driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Hurrying, outside Stockton Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills your car. A driver tips the bottle in at home, right off High Street, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Crown.
It occurs most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first step — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be around Stockton or the rest of Warwickshire.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stockton?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been drawn through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Stockton Sports Ground or halfway across Stockton. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Stockton lies under 10 miles from the M45; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Stockton to the car park by St Michael is a very different job from a run towards Coventry, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. If it's spotted soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Stockton: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest in Stockton — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road by Stockton Village Hall — the van comes to the car. Which fluid was put in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has turned over: our technicians check before all else, because those shape the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after that tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue will not wash out unaided. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking bay by Leamington Spa or a drive around Stockton, that is where we start the car and you set off. It's checked on new diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers go. Since the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Stockton itself
Stockton is a rural village in Warwickshire, situated inland at an elevation of 101 metres, approximately 11 miles south of Coventry. Stockton lies near the villages of Tomlow and Southam, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Stockton is a relatively small community, with a population of around 1504 residents, and is located about 74 miles northwest of London.
Stockton and Warwickshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Stockton are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Tomlow, Model Village plus Southam — and much of Warwickshire further out, throughout CV postcodes. Near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
Wherever your car sits — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we empty it there, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Stockton, a rural village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Stockton?
There is no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open drive is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind Scout Hut.
Ahead of any figure, never afterwards, every call from Stockton begins with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and if the engine ran. Their replies shrink a range right down to a single figure.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the price on the phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. While our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Stockton and still next to the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Stockton or anywhere within Warwickshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.