Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tetney
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and your ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's pulled through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully rinsed where the vehicle stands in Tetney. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Tetney, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting DN36 5, or whichever street is closest, and the van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Even a short way down Market Place is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Tetney filling station — the Esso among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in North Thoresby last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches until it is cleared from the system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow passages. A car left standing in Tetney with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water part damages them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a problem of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it stays put, blended into the diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in North Cotes or the middle of Tetney.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever around Lincolnshire the car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to clear.
Tetney: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside Tetney Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Humberston Road. Else, after dark outside Plough Inn, your car is topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least known cars see it the most — hire cars, new cars, company cars, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever you are in Tetney or the remainder of Lincolnshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tetney, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The filter and lines have had it sucked along, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Tetney Golf Club or halfway across Tetney. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M180, under 25 miles from Tetney, at the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Tetney to the car park by St Peter & St Paul is a very different job from a run towards Kingston upon Hull, under 25 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 clean out once your engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. Caught early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Tetney
Wherever it has stopped around Tetney — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by Dock Koi — our van comes to the vehicle. The job depends on three replies, and our engineers get first — what got in, the quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where your car sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because 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 car is tested. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, your system is bled with new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, at Cleethorpes or on a drive in Tetney. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our engineers head off. As the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Tetney
Tetney is a small coastal village in Lincolnshire, situated near the mouth of the Humber Estuary at an elevation of around 8 metres. Tetney lies within a short distance of several nearby settlements, including Tetney Lock, Waithe, and Holton le Clay. Tetney has a population of approximately 981 residents, predominantly living in detached housing. Tetney is located about 21.8 miles from Kingston upon Hull and around 137 miles from London.
Tetney and Lincolnshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Tetney go to vans that cover the places around it — Tetney Lock, Waithe plus Holton le Clay — and much of Lincolnshire further out, throughout DN postcodes. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are by a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Tetney is a coastal village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tetney: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be fair. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Holton Le Clay Cricket Club.
Before any figure, never afterwards, every enquiry from Tetney begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. Those answers shrink the range down to one number.
Our quote is given during the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Beside the car in Tetney, still?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Tetney or anywhere in Lincolnshire.