AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Summerhill? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your motor off and keep your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. In Summerhill, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Summerhill: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops someone turning the power on.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting NP19 7, or simply the name of a street close by, so call from the car.
Never do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way along Victoria Avenue.
- By the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
The attendants on duty at any Summerhill filling station — the Esso among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. On that drive, the car stays exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to travel that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in St Julians yesterday evening and left unstarted is the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when the motor runs, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Once it's drawn in, the damage takes two forms. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in Summerhill makes things worse. Inside that tank alone, waiting does nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a problem of thin fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left in the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the vehicle is in East Usk or the heart of Summerhill, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Newport the car is standing.
Summerhill: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Usually, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Close to Hertford Place, someone tips a container in at home in the evening. Else, in dim light by The Crown Hotel, the vehicle gets topped up by someone using that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Summerhill or the remainder of Newport, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Summerhill?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Perhaps coming back from Brecon Park, or midway across Summerhill, the motor might run rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. Once you safely can, pull over then switch it off — without turning it on again to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the M4, under a mile from Summerhill, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Summerhill to the car park by Summerhill Baptist Church is a very different job from a run towards Newport, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the engine has been started. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage if it's noticed soon.
Summerhill: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Summerhill: a side street near St John's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the work, and so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, and if the motor has turned over.
Next, emptying your tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through since what remains will not flush out by itself. A test of your car comes at the end, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter gets flushed or, where necessary, replaced. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your engine hasn't run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. Then we start the engine and you drive off, whether from a parking bay outside Newport (South Wales) or a driveway in Summerhill. We check it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Summerhill, briefly
Summerhill is a suburban area located on the coast of Wales, near the city of Newport, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Summerhill sits at an elevation of 56 metres, close to the nearby suburbs of Maindee, Barnardtown, and Beechwood. Summerhill is a densely populated area, with around 10,142 residents, and is situated approximately 1.1 miles from Newport city centre. Summerhill benefits from its proximity to the coast and the surrounding urban area.
Summerhill and Newport: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the NP postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Summerhill serve much of Newport too, Maindee, Barnardtown and Beechwood included. Guessing won't help by a border or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
A mobile service suits Summerhill, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Summerhill
Because the callouts differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Duckpool Road Baptist Church.
Before any figure, never after, each enquiry from Summerhill opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. Their answers narrow the range down to a single figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Summerhill and still alongside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Summerhill or anywhere within Newport, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.