AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Trimdon? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until the motor sucks it through. In Trimdon, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Trimdon, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, take your keys out.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting TS29 6, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch along Dunelm Road.
- By the road, do not try draining it on your own.
On a forecourt in Trimdon, whether it's the JET or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. On the drive, the car stays exactly as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Deaf Hill overnight and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of your tank, untouched — but it will be the first thing through if the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. 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, and so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. A motor left standing in Trimdon with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. 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.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Sainsbury's, and this problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the following tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Trimdon or out in Town Kelloe, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere across Durham your car has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Trimdon
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many designs allow it. A container picked up when heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Bluebell Meadow Primary School. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Beckwith Drive. Else, in dim light by The Black Bull, the vehicle is refilled by a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles see it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company cars, and the spare car of a family with both fuels. An identical mistake, an identical first step — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Trimdon or the rest of Durham.
Trimdon: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. It has been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may appear, perhaps part way across Trimdon or coming back from Trimdon Millennium Green. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the A1(M), under 3 miles from Trimdon, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Trimdon to park near St. William, Trimdon and a drive of under 10 miles towards Durham are such distinct jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Trimdon?
Wherever it has come to rest in Trimdon — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Church of St Mary Magdalene — the van travels to the vehicle. What was put in, about the quantity, and whether your engine has been run: our engineers check before all else, because those shape the work.
Then that tank is cleared where the vehicle stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Last, the fuel system is bled with clean diesel. At that point we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay by Horden or a driveway around Trimdon. It's tested on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our technicians leave. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Trimdon
Trimdon is a village in County Durham, situated on the banks of a river in the north east of England. Trimdon sits at an elevation of 149 metres, approximately 8 miles from the city of Durham. Trimdon is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located near other small settlements such as Trimdon Grange and Fishburn.
Trimdon and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
Trimdon Grange, Fishburn and Trimdon Colliery are among the places near Trimdon that the same teams serve, along with most of Durham beyond, over the TS postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
Trimdon is a village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Trimdon
Since each jobs differ, a single figure wouldn't be honest. What changes the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Trimdon Colliery Disaster Memorial.
What went in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: every Trimdon enquiry opens with precisely that, before any figure, never after. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Before a van heads out, you are told our price on the phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Trimdon: still beside your car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Durham, Trimdon included.