Town End Farm: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes once your pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Town End Farm, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Town End Farm: the first few minutes
Do:
- Remove your keys, which prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting SR5 4, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to reposition the car.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance down Bingley Street.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your car off the island if you are on a forecourt around Town End Farm, whether it's the BP or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Hylton Red House overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through once the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and narrow channels; and, since it attacks some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. By daybreak, a car parked in Town End Farm with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just in your tank, nothing changes. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Asda's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that's the whole problem. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back from your diesel, and so watering it won't work. That is why the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in West Boldon or the heart of Town End Farm alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever across Tyne and Wear the car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Town End Farm: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside Bexhill Academy, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Berwick Square. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Red Lion, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
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. Anywhere around Tyne and Wear, Town End Farm as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Town End Farm, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It has been drawn through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Long Swan Plantation, say, or part way across Town End Farm. When you safely can, pull over and switch it off — without turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the A194(M), under 3 miles from Town End Farm, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, so driving for Sunderland, under 5 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Town End Farm to the car park by St Bede. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been running. Lasting damage is very rare if it's caught early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Town End Farm?
The car stays put, whether that is a street near Bunny Hill Wellness, a drive, a layby or a filling station in Town End Farm, and our van comes to it. The job depends on three replies, which we get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has run.
Then the tank is cleared where your car stands, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts far more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not clear away by itself. Testing your vehicle follows at the end, after clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter is cleaned or, if needed, replaced. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking bay at East Boldon or a driveway around Town End Farm, that is where our technicians fire it up and you drive off. The check before we leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Town End Farm and where it is
Town End Farm is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, situated near the river at an elevation of 36 metres. Town End Farm sits close to several nearby places of interest, including Hylton Castle and Downhill, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Town End Farm is part of the wider Sunderland urban area, with the city centre just 3.4 miles away.
Town End Farm and Tyne and Wear: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the SR postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Town End Farm reach most of Tyne and Wear too, Hylton Castle, Downhill and Castletown included. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Town End Farm, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Town End Farm: the cost of fixing it
No single figure could be fair, because each job is different. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Bunny Hill Library.
That is why each call from Town End Farm starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, a range narrows to a single firm figure.
Our quote is given on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Town End Farm: still next to your car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Town End Farm or wherever within Tyne and Wear.