AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Treskerby? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The harm begins once it is sucked through the pump — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Treskerby. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Treskerby: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TR16 5, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Chenoweth Way is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
The staff on duty at any Treskerby forecourt — the Texaco among them — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. On the drive, the vehicle remains just where it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Higher Ninnis last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight around Treskerby leaves it worse. Inside that tank only, time does nothing. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Opie Oils's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that's the whole problem. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in your tank, it does none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following fill won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Treskerby or out in Lower Ninnis, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Cornwall the vehicle is sitting.
Treskerby: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two can look identical. No one intends it. Mostly it is not the filling station: a driver picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside Treleigh Community Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken in. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Trelawney Avenue, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside The Mount Ambrose Inn.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same slip, wherever around Treskerby or the rest of Cornwall you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Treskerby?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Treskerby Playing Field, say, or midway across Treskerby. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M5, over 50 miles from Treskerby, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Treskerby to park beside The Original Factory Shop and a drive of under 10 miles towards Truro are such distinct jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Treskerby: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest in Treskerby — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road beside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — our van comes to your vehicle. The job rests on three replies, and we ask for first — what was put in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since residue won't flush out unaided. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Last, the system is bled with fresh diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Treskerby or in a bay by Redruth. Before leaving, our engineers confirm it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Treskerby itself
Treskerby is a small village in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 148 metres, approximately 6.9 miles from Truro. Treskerby has a population of around 882 residents, predominantly living in detached houses. Treskerby is close to nearby places such as Mount Ambrose, Trefula, and Scorrier, and is located in the South West region of England, about 237.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Treskerby included
Over the TR postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Treskerby reach most of Cornwall as well, Mount Ambrose, Trefula and Scorrier among them. Near a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
No towing is needed. In Treskerby, a rural village, a van that comes to you fits: your car is drained on the spot, whether in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Treskerby: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Scorrier Chapel.
That is why each call from Treskerby starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
In Treskerby and still next to the vehicle?
Not touching the car is, then, the best thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Treskerby or anywhere across Cornwall.