Town Bank: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. In Town Bank, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Town Bank: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we will see.
- Tell us a postcode starting LA12 7, or whichever street is nearest, and our van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way up Town Bank Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
The attendants working at any Town Bank forecourt — the Shell included — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not combine. Once it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its fuel from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Newland yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once the motor runs, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches till it is removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow passages. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Town Bank with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's only inside the tank, it doesn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Gulf, and the issue is thinned fuel. Mixed into your diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless at that stage; running the motor is the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Newland Bottom or the middle of Town Bank.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Cumbria the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Town Bank
It is not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it's never the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle driving home and tips it in at home.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Church Walk CofE Primary School. Close to Soutergate, someone tips a bottle in at home after work. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by Kings Arms.
It takes place most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Town Bank or the rest of Cumbria, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Town Bank: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Maybe coming back from Gill Banks Wood, or midway across Town Bank, your engine may go lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or stall. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M6, under 15 miles from Town Bank, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so heading towards Lancaster, under 25 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Town Bank to the car park by Ulverston Parish Church - St Mary's and Holy Trinity. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Caught early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Town Bank: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Town Bank: a side street close to Ulverston Parish Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What was put in, about the quantity, plus whether your engine has been run: we ask before all else, because those shape the job.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through because what remains will not flush away unaided. Next, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians turn up, if your engine has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the system with clean diesel comes at the end. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Town Bank or in a bay outside Ulverston. It's checked on new diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our technicians go. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Town Bank itself
Town Bank is a suburban area located on the coast of Cumbria, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Town Bank sits at an elevation of 57 metres, near the towns of Ulverston and Lancaster, and is part of the larger coastal community. Town Bank is situated near the Rosside and Dragley Beck areas, and is about 15 miles from Lancaster. Town Bank has a population of around 1955 people, living in a variety of housing types, predominantly terraced.
AdBlue drains around Town Bank and across Cumbria
Ulverston, Rosside and Dragley Beck are among the towns around Town Bank that the same vans serve, along with much of Cumbria beyond, throughout the LA postcode area. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
Wherever the car sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we empty it there, with no need to take it to us; which suits Town Bank, a residential suburb, well.
Town Bank: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No flat figure could be honest, because each job differs. Three things move the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind cairn and compass.
With that reason, every enquiry from Town Bank opens by asking the identical trio — what got in, how much, whether it ran — ahead of a quote. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Town Bank and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Cumbria, Town Bank included.