Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tiverton
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens till the motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Tiverton, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Tiverton: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting EX16 6, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance along St Andrew Street.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Rolling the car off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Tiverton forecourt you're on, the Shell included. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Farleigh Meadows last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny channels; and, since it eats at certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it remains in there. A motor left sitting around Tiverton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel running past them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Tesco, and this issue is thinned fuel. Mixed through the diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; running the motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot simply be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the following fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Tiverton or out in Moorhayes Park, costs more than almost any other error.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Devon your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Tiverton
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Heathcoat Primary School the refill is hurried. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Angel Hill. Else, after dark outside The Half Moon, your vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical mistake, same first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Tiverton or the rest of Devon.
Tiverton: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may see your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Westexe Recreation Ground or halfway across Tiverton. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M5, under 5 miles from Tiverton, at the first junction and stop safely, not carrying on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so heading for Exeter, under 15 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Tiverton to the car park by St Georges Church. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Tiverton: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped around Tiverton — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Tiverton United Reformed Church — our van comes to the car. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether your engine has been run, because those replies determine the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains will not flush out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. Whether it's a parking bay at Tiverton Parkway or a drive in Tiverton, that is where we fire it up and you set off. Before leaving, we check it is running correctly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Tiverton itself
Tiverton is a town in Devon, situated on the River Exe in the South West of England, with a population of around 15238 people. Tiverton sits at an elevation of 74 metres, approximately 12.6 miles north of Exeter, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Tiverton is close to several nearby places, including Cotteylands, Collipriest, and Cowleymoor, and is located about 151.4 miles west of London. Tiverton's riverside setting has influenced its development over time.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Tiverton included
Over the EX postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Tiverton reach much of Devon too, Cotteylands, Collipriest and Cowleymoor among them. Phone and check rather than guess if you're by a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
No towing is needed. In Tiverton, a riverside town, a mobile service fits: the car is emptied on the spot, be it on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Tiverton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, so no fixed price would be fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Tiverton Methodist Church.
That's why each call from Tiverton starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. When they are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
The quote is given during the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Tiverton and still alongside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Tiverton or anywhere around Devon.