Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Thurlby
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The harm starts once it's pulled through the pump — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Thurlby. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Thurlby
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Call right where you are. Say a PE10 0 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Never do these:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Crown Lane.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
The staff working at any Thurlby forecourt — the BP included — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the pickup draws from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Manthorpe last night and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm 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, so it keeps labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. A car left standing around Thurlby with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Shell, and the problem is diluted fuel. Mixed into your diesel and left unused, it's harmless at that stage; using the engine does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the following tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Thurlby or out in Toft, costs more than almost any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Wherever in Lincolnshire your car has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Thurlby: how it ends up there
It is not on purpose. Many cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. It mostly takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Thurlby Community Primary Academy. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, right off High Street, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Horseshoe.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical slip, same first response — keep it off — wherever you happen to be around Thurlby or the remainder of Lincolnshire.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Thurlby?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, maybe part way across Thurlby or returning from Lawrance Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the Great North Road, under 15 miles from Thurlby, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Thurlby to the car park by Thurlby Methodist Church is one thing; heading towards Peterborough, under 15 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the engine has been run. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it is noticed quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Thurlby?
Anywhere it has stopped in Thurlby — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Saint Firmin's Church — our van comes to your vehicle. The work depends on three replies, which our engineers ask for first — which fluid got in, the amount, and if your engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is drained, on the spot. The system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, if the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. Whether it's a parking bay by Stamford or a driveway in Thurlby, that is where we fire it up and you head off. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our engineers leave. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Thurlby, briefly
Thurlby is a small village in Lincolnshire, situated in the East Midlands region of England, with a population of around 870 people. Thurlby sits inland, approximately 24 metres above sea level, and is located near the villages of Northorpe and Obthorpe. Thurlby is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is close to the city of Peterborough, which is about 12.8 miles away. Thurlby is also within a reasonable distance from London, being around 85.7 miles north of the capital.
AdBlue drains across Thurlby and Lincolnshire
Over the PE postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Thurlby serve most of Lincolnshire too, Northorpe, Obthorpe and Obthorpe Lodge among them. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you're close to a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Thurlby is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Thurlby: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the callouts vary, a single price would not be fair. Three things move the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind The Centre @ Elsea Park.
Before a figure, never after, each enquiry from Thurlby opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus if it ran. Their replies narrow a range down to one figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Thurlby: still alongside the car?
Then, do nothing — that is the best step available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Thurlby or wherever in Lincolnshire, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.