Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Willows
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your motor off and leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens till your motor sucks it round. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly flushed where your car stands around The Willows. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in The Willows
Do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take your keys away.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting DN37 9, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift your car.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way up Wingate Road.
- Beside the road, do not try draining it yourself.
On a forecourt in The Willows, whether it is the JET or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. From a separate tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, which is why a vehicle topped up in Yarborough last night and not switched on remains the straightforward one, provided nobody turns the key.
After it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A vehicle left sitting around The Willows with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the main fault. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. Whether the vehicle is in Littlefield or the heart of The Willows, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Lincolnshire the vehicle is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in The Willows?
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. It usually happens at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside Willows Academy, 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 Service Road 23. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Valiant.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a company motor, or the spare vehicle of a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers know least. Keep it off: that's the first step to the same mistake, wherever in The Willows or the remainder of Lincolnshire you are.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in The Willows?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and lines.
Perhaps coming back from The Queens Green Canopy (The Platinum Jubilee 2022), or part way across The Willows, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. No starting it again to check: stop once it is safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
The Willows sits under 15 miles from the M180; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across The Willows to park beside Willows Community Church and a drive of under 15 miles towards Kingston upon Hull are such separate jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been run. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
The Willows: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped around The Willows — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Bishop King Learning Centre — our van comes to your car. What was put in, about how much, and if your engine has been run: our engineers ask first, because those shape the job.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. What remains from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. Testing the car follows last, after clean diesel is added and your filter is flushed or, if needed, swapped. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as our technicians have started the car, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around The Willows or in a space outside Great Coates. Before leaving, we confirm it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About The Willows
The Willows is a suburban area located on the coast of Lincolnshire, with an elevation of around 8 metres above sea level. The Willows sits near several other small communities, including Great Coates and Little Coates, and is close to the larger city of Kingston upon Hull. The Willows has a population of approximately 4169 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. The Willows is situated in a region that is generally flat and low-lying, with Wybers Wood nearby.
AdBlue drains around The Willows and across Lincolnshire
AdBlue call-outs in The Willows are passed to teams that cover the towns near it — Great Coates, Little Coates as well as Wybers Wood — and most of Lincolnshire beyond, throughout DN postcodes. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A van that comes to you suits The Willows, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in The Willows: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. What changes the cost is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind The Willows Library.
Ahead of any figure, never afterwards, each enquiry from The Willows opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. With them, a range narrows to one fixed number.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still alongside your car around The Willows?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around The Willows or anywhere across Lincolnshire.