AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Thurlstone? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts when the pump starts pulling it. In Thurlstone, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Thurlstone: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops anyone turning the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly how much volume? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting S36 9, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Moving your vehicle even a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's pointless.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along Towngate.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Moving your car off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Thurlstone forecourt you're on, the Texaco included. At home, the vehicle stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is why a car filled in Royd Moor yesterday and never switched on stays the simple one, provided no one touches your key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle sitting around Thurlstone. Only in that tank, it stays stable. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Yorkshire Fuels's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that is the main fault. Mixed through your diesel and left still, it is no threat for now; running your motor does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, and so watering it won't help. That is why the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in The Green or the heart of Thurlstone equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere in South Yorkshire your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Thurlstone: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many motors put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody means it. A container picked up when driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Thurlstone Primary School the refill is rushed. Someone tips the container in at home, just off Watering Place Road, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills your car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Crystal Palace.
The least familiar vehicles see it most — hire cars, new cars, fleet ones, and the spare motor of a home with both fuel types. Leave it off: that's the first response to the same mistake, wherever around Thurlstone or the remainder of South Yorkshire you happen to be.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Thurlstone?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Thurlstone Woods Park or halfway across Thurlstone. No starting it again to test: stop when it is safe, then switch everything off. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M1, under 10 miles from Thurlstone, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so heading towards Wakefield, under 15 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Thurlstone to the car park by Thurlstone War Memorial. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very rare if it is caught quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Thurlstone: what it takes
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a street near Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, a drive, a layby or a filling station in Thurlstone, and our van travels to it. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else we ask what was put in, about what quantity, and if the motor has run.
Then the tank is drained where the car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of the vehicle. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay by Penistone or a drive around Thurlstone, that is where our technicians start the engine and you head off. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Thurlstone itself
Thurlstone is a village in South Yorkshire, situated near the River Don and surrounded by rolling hills. Thurlstone sits at an elevation of 216 metres, with the nearby Scout Dike and Bridge End providing scenic views. Thurlstone has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most common, and its population of around 1375 people gives it a small, close-knit feel. Thurlstone is located near the town of Penistone and is about 12 miles from Wakefield.
AdBlue drains across Thurlstone and South Yorkshire
Scout Dike, Bridge End and Penistone are among the places near Thurlstone that the same vans serve, together with most of South Yorkshire beyond, throughout the S postcode area. Ring and ask rather than guess when you are by a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Thurlstone, a village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Thurlstone: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so no fixed price is honest. What changes the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Nicholas Saunderson.
Before any quote, never after, each call from Thurlstone opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. Given those replies, the range shrinks to one fixed number.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Still next to the car in Thurlstone?
Then, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across South Yorkshire, Thurlstone included.