Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stoneyford
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until your motor pulls it through. In Stoneyford, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Stoneyford, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Call right where you are. Say a EX15 1 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so leave the car off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Saunder's Way.
- Emptying that tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
At a forecourt around Stoneyford, whether it is the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a separate tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Ponsford overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — though it will be first through once the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; and, because it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. A car left sitting around Stoneyford with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have an issue of thin fuel. No harm is done while it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Willand or the heart of Stoneyford, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Devon the car has come to rest, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Stoneyford?
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two can look identical. No one intends it. A bottle picked up while driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. The refill is rushed outside St Andrew's Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken off. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to M5. Otherwise, in dim light by The Weary Traveller, the vehicle is refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be in Stoneyford or the rest of Devon.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stoneyford, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Perhaps coming back from Head Wier Road Play Area, or midway across Stoneyford, your motor might go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M5, under a mile from Stoneyford, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Stoneyford to the car park by War memorial is a very different job from a run towards Exeter, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. If it's caught quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Stoneyford
The car stays where it is, whether that is a road beside Cullompton Town Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in Stoneyford, and the van comes to it. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else we ask what went in, about what quantity, and whether your engine has run.
Next, draining your tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the final step. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Stoneyford or in a bay at Tiverton Parkway. We make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we leave. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Stoneyford itself
Stoneyford is a village in Devon, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 52 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Stoneyford lies near the city of Exeter, approximately 11.7 miles away, and is also close to other nearby places such as St Georges Well and Cullompton. Stoneyford has a population of around 1145 residents and is located in the South West region of England, about 147.8 miles from London. Stoneyford's riverside setting provides a unique character to the village.
AdBlue drains across Stoneyford and Devon
AdBlue call-outs in Stoneyford go to teams that cover the towns near it — St Georges Well, Cullompton as well as Knowle — and most of Devon further out, throughout EX postcodes. Assuming won't help close to a county line or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
A mobile service fits Stoneyford, a village: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we empty it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Stoneyford?
Every job differs, so no single quote is honest. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Cullompton Community Centre.
That is why every call from Stoneyford starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the car around Stoneyford?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Stoneyford or anywhere around Devon.