Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Thorpe Acre
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only comes when the pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Thorpe Acre, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Thorpe Acre
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting LE11 4, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Shifting the car just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way up Wollaton Avenue.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Thorpe Acre, whether it is the Morrisons or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Shelthorpe yesterday and never switched on stays the simple case, provided nobody touches your key.
Two kinds of damage come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. By daybreak, a car sitting in Thorpe Acre with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is just in the tank, it doesn't. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Sainsbury's's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the whole issue. No harm comes while it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only once your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, because it does not burn. Whether the vehicle is in Nanpantan or the heart of Thorpe Acre, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Leicestershire the car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Thorpe Acre?
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. A container bought while driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Thorpe Acre Junior School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped in. Someone pours the bottle in at home, right off Oxburgh Close, as the day ends. Another pattern: darkness, the car park by Spot on Leisure, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the spare car in a home with both fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. Same mistake, same first response — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be in Thorpe Acre or the rest of Leicestershire.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Thorpe Acre?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and lines.
Perhaps coming back from Jubilee Park, or part way across Thorpe Acre, the motor may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M1, under 3 miles from Thorpe Acre, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why a hop across Thorpe Acre to park beside All Saints', Thorpe Acre and a drive of under 15 miles for Leicester are such distinct jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Caught soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Thorpe Acre
A road by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your car has come to rest in Thorpe Acre, our engineers travel to it. The work depends on three answers, and we ask for before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because residue won't wash away unaided. Testing your vehicle comes at the end, once clean diesel is added and your filter is cleaned or, if necessary, replaced. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your engine has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, your system is primed with fresh diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Thorpe Acre or in a space outside Loughborough. It is tested on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Thorpe Acre
Thorpe Acre is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Leicestershire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Thorpe Acre lies near the towns of Loughborough and Hathern, and is close to the village of Dishley. Thorpe Acre has a population of around 5528 people and is located approximately 10.8 miles from Leicester, making it a commuter base for the city. Thorpe Acre is relatively low-lying, with an elevation of around 47 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains in Thorpe Acre and across Leicestershire
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs in Thorpe Acre also cover the places around it, Dishley, Loughborough and Hathern among them, and most of Leicestershire beyond, across the LE postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
Thorpe Acre is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Thorpe Acre: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the jobs differ, a single price would not be fair. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Gorse Covert Community Centre.
That is why each call from Thorpe Acre starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
The quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Thorpe Acre: still next to your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran are all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Leicestershire, Thorpe Acre too.