Towns End: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the engine off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully flushed where the vehicle sits around Towns End. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Towns End: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BA12 6, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is pointless.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along B3095.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Rolling your car off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Towns End forecourt you're on, the Gulf or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays apart instead of blending — quite different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Ivy Mead last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it is sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. Overnight, a car sitting in Towns End with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it's just inside your tank, it doesn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and this issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the following fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Towns End or out in Rook Street, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Wiltshire your car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Towns End
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap — may look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. A container bought when driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Mere School. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Mapperton Hill. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, parked in the car park by Butt of Sherry.
The least known cars see it most — rentals, new ones, company cars, and the other car in a home with both fuels. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere around Towns End or the remainder of Wiltshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Towns End, and your engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might appear, maybe part way across Towns End or returning from Chaddenwick Wood. Once you safely can, stop then turn it off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M4, under 50 miles from Towns End, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Hopping across Towns End to the car park by Sir Winston Churchill is one thing; driving towards Wells, under 25 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where your car has stopped, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed soon.
Towns End: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street beside Visit Hillbrush, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever the car has stopped around Towns End, our engineers travel to it. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers ask for first — which fluid went in, the amount, and if the engine has turned over.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, if the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking bay outside Gillingham (Dorset) or a driveway around Towns End, that is where we fire it up and you set off. Before we go, we confirm it is running properly with clean diesel in. No garage is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Towns End, for a moment
Towns End is a small suburban area in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 110 metres. Towns End lies near the villages of Lower Zeals and Mere, and is approximately 17.9 miles from the city of Wells. Towns End has a population of around 564 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Towns End and Wiltshire
Lower Zeals, Mere and Well Head are among the places around Towns End that the same vans reach, together with most of Wiltshire beyond, throughout the BA postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
Towns End is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car 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 moved to us.
Towns End: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single price could be honest, since every job differs. Three things change the cost: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight spot behind Castle Hill.
That's why every call from Towns End starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside your car in Towns End, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran are all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Wiltshire, Towns End too.