AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Thinford? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the lines — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Thinford. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Thinford: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will know.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting DH6 5, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up A167.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
The staff working at any Thinford forecourt — the BP among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A car filled on a driveway in Metal Bridge yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
After it is sucked in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Thinford with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is just in your tank, nothing changes. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Mixed through the diesel and sitting still, it is no threat for now; using your motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Tudhoe Grange or the middle of Thinford.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere in Durham the car has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
Thinford: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two can appear the same. Nobody intends it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside St Charles' Catholic Primary School, Tudhoe, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off A688. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside The Fox Cub, and someone using that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the other car in a home with both fuels — the cars drivers know the least. Anywhere in Durham, Thinford included, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
Thinford: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Tudhoe Woods or halfway across Thinford. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the car off rather than testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the A1(M), under 3 miles from Thinford, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, so driving towards Durham, under 10 miles away, makes a much bigger job than hopping across Thinford to the car park by Durham County Council. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. When it is spotted quickly, long-term damage is very rare.
Thinford: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Thinford: a side street close to Mount Pleasant Independent Methodist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the job, and so first our technicians ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, plus if your motor has run.
Then the tank is cleared where the car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. Whether it's a parking bay by Durham or a drive in Thinford, that is where we fire it up and you set off. We confirm it runs correctly on clean diesel before we go. As the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Thinford and where it is
Thinford is a small hamlet in County Durham, situated inland at an elevation of 134 metres, approximately 5 miles from the city of Durham. Thinford lies near several neighbouring communities, including Mount Pleasant, Low Spennymoor, and East Howle, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Thinford is a relatively small settlement, with a population of around 680 residents, and is located about 228.9 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains around Thinford and across Durham
Mount Pleasant, Low Spennymoor and East Howle are among the towns near Thinford that the same vans serve, together with much of Durham beyond, over the DH postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A van that comes to you fits Thinford, a rural hamlet: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Thinford: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight spot behind Tudhoe Community Centre.
Ahead of a quote, never afterwards, each call from Thinford opens with three questions: the liquid, the amount, and if it ran. When they are answered, a range becomes one fixed figure.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the car in Thinford?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran is everything our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Durham, Thinford included.