Trunnah: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The harm starts once it's pulled through the pump — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Trunnah. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Trunnah
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Tell us a postcode starting FY5 4, or whatever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short distance up Brown Street.
- By the road, don't try draining it on your own.
On a forecourt in Trunnah, whether it's the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was meant to go that way.
It doesn't blend. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Pheasant Wood overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — though it would be first through once your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; and, since it eats at certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a car sitting in Trunnah with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's just inside the tank, it doesn't. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Morrisons, and the issue is thinned fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it does none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again from the diesel, so watering it won't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Stanah or the centre of Trunnah equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Lancashire your car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Trunnah?
Many cars put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and after dark the two can appear the same. Nobody intends it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Thornton Cleveleys, because the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken off. Near Bonney Street, a driver tips a bottle in on that drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Sandyforth Arms, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars see it the most — hire cars, new cars, company ones, and the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuels. Keep it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in Trunnah or the remainder of Lancashire you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Trunnah, and the motor started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may see your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Fleetwood Town FC Training Grounds or halfway across Trunnah. When you safely can, pull over then switch it off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M55, under 10 miles from Trunnah, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further into your system, so heading towards Lancaster, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Trunnah to the car park by Sacred Heart. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Caught quickly, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Trunnah: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped around Trunnah — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Wyre Youth Football Club — the van comes to the car. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, and whether the engine has been run: our engineers ask first, since those decide the job.
Then the tank is drained where the vehicle waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since residue will not flush out unaided. Testing your car comes at the end, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. Not run? Then count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, at Poulton-Le-Fylde or on a drive in Trunnah. It is checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians head off. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to go to a garage. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Trunnah
Trunnah is a coastal suburban area in Lancashire, situated near the cities of Lancaster and Blackpool. Trunnah lies at a low elevation of around 6 metres, close to the shoreline and nearby places such as Burn Naze and Thornton. Trunnah has a population of approximately 5582 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
Trunnah and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the FY postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Trunnah serve much of Lancashire too, Burn Naze, Thornton and Raikes among them. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you suits Trunnah, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since our engineers drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Trunnah
Because each jobs differ, a single figure would not be honest. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, since an open driveway is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Verona Hall.
That's why every call from Trunnah starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Their replies narrow a range right down to one number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside your car around Trunnah, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Trunnah or anywhere in Lancashire.