Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stonelaw Grange
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. In Stonelaw Grange, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stonelaw Grange: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, and that prevents someone turning the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting NE23 6, or whichever street lies closest, and our van reaches you directly — so call wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- Shifting your car just a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, so it's wasted.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short distance along Highburn.
- Draining your tank on your own by the road isn't worth trying.
Get the attendants to help you roll your vehicle away from the island if you're at a forecourt around Stonelaw Grange, whether it's the Sainsbury's or elsewhere. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Hall Close Glade overnight and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through once the engine runs, before any diesel at all.
After it's sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. Overnight, a car sitting around Stonelaw Grange with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is just inside your tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Co-op Food and you have an issue of thin fuel. Blended through the diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat at that stage; running the motor is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, and so watering it can't work. Hence the flush counts more, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Whitelea Chase or the centre of Stonelaw Grange equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside that tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere your vehicle has stopped in Northumberland.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Stonelaw Grange
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Hareside Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Lancastrian Road. Or someone new to that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by Benedictine Catholic Social Club.
The least known cars get it the most — rentals, brand-new cars, company ones, and the spare vehicle of a home with both fuels. Wherever you're in Stonelaw Grange or the rest of Northumberland, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stonelaw Grange?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may appear, maybe part way across Stonelaw Grange or returning from Alexandra Skate Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the A167(M), under 10 miles from Stonelaw Grange, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Stonelaw Grange to the car park by Alexandra Park Pavilion is one thing; heading towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to clean out once the engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Stonelaw Grange?
Wherever it has come to rest in Stonelaw Grange — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road by St Paul's RC Church — the van comes to your car. Before anything else we ask what was put in, about how much, and if your motor has been run, since those answers settle this work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Priming your system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by Cramlington or on a drive around Stonelaw Grange. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it is running correctly with new diesel in. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Stonelaw Grange and where it is
Stonelaw Grange is a suburban area in Northumberland, situated approximately 7 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Stonelaw Grange sits at an elevation of 63 metres, in a gently rolling landscape characteristic of the region. Stonelaw Grange has a mix of housing types, with terraced housing being predominant, and is located near other residential areas such as Whitelea Glade and Hall Close Chase.
AdBlue drains across Northumberland, Stonelaw Grange included
Over the NE postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Stonelaw Grange reach much of Northumberland as well, Whitelea Glade, Hall Close Chase and Stonelaw Dale included. Guessing won't help by a county line or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Stonelaw Grange is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Stonelaw Grange: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so not one fixed price would be fair. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind The Salvation Army.
What went in, how much, plus if the engine ran: each Stonelaw Grange call opens by asking exactly that, before any figure, not afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
In Stonelaw Grange and still next to your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran is everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Northumberland, Stonelaw Grange included.