AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Tan Hills? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave your motor off then keep your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully cleaned where the vehicle stands in Tan Hills. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Tan Hills, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Remove your keys, which prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Which product, and roughly how much amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting DH2 3, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Tanmeads.
- Emptying that tank on your own by the road isn't worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your car off the island if you are at a forecourt in Tan Hills, whether it is the Plawsworth Service Station or elsewhere. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the gases. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Plawsworth last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's cleared out. A car left standing in Tan Hills with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Sainsbury's, and the issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside the tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, and so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Chester Moor or the heart of Tan Hills alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Durham the car has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
Tan Hills: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Nettlesworth Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Hawthorn Close. Otherwise, after dark outside Red Lion, the car gets topped up by someone opening that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars get it most — rentals, new cars, fleet ones, and the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuels. Same slip, an identical first response — keep it off — anywhere you are in Tan Hills or the rest of Durham.
Tan Hills: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Daisy Hill Local Nature Reserve, or midway across Tan Hills, your engine might go rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. Once you safely can, pull over then switch everything off — with no turning it on again to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the A1(M), under 3 miles from Tan Hills, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system. That's why a hop across Tan Hills to park beside St Philip and St James and a drive of under 5 miles for Durham are such separate jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Tan Hills?
A road beside Nettlesworth Community Centre, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Tan Hills, our engineers come to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those replies settle this work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when your tank is emptied, right there. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, the system is bled with fresh diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Tan Hills or in a space at Chester-Le-Street. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to go to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Tan Hills and where it is
Tan Hills is a village situated on the riverside in County Durham, with a population of around 899 residents. Tan Hills has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most predominant. Tan Hills is located near several other small villages, including Nettlesworth, Kimblesworth, and Plawsworth Gate, and is approximately 3 miles from the city of Durham. Tan Hills sits at an elevation of 98 metres above sea level, in a scenic area of the North East region.
AdBlue drains across Tan Hills and Durham
Throughout the DH postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Tan Hills reach much of Durham too, Nettlesworth, Kimblesworth and Plawsworth Gate among them. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Tan Hills, a village: you have no need to take the car to us, because we empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Tan Hills
Not one single figure could be fair, because each job differs. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open driveway is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind The Salvation Army Citadel.
Ahead of any quote, never afterwards, every call from Tan Hills opens with three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Their answers shrink a range right down to one number.
The price is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Tan Hills and still next to your car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best step there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Tan Hills or anywhere within Durham.