Upper Street: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only starts when your pump begins pulling it. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Upper Street. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Upper Street, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Remove the keys, which stops someone switching the power on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting NR11 8, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: the engine remains off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down Chapel Street.
- Beside the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
At a forecourt in Upper Street, whether it's the TotalEnergies or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A motor topped up on a drive in Frogshall yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What remains when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. A vehicle left sitting around Upper Street with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's inside your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Gimingham or the middle of Upper Street.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Norfolk the vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Upper Street: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. It usually happens at home, from a container grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Antingham and Southrepps Primary School the refill is hurried. After work, a container goes in on a drive near Church Street. One more version: darkness, the car park outside Vernon Arms, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other motor of a family with both fuels — the cars drivers know least. Wherever in Norfolk, Upper Street as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Upper Street: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through the filter, along the lines, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from School Common - Open Access Land or halfway across Upper Street. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M11, over 50 miles from Upper Street, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Upper Street to park beside Southrepps Village Hall and a drive of under 25 miles for Norwich are very separate jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been run. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it's noticed soon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Upper Street: what it takes
The car stays put, whether that is a road near Upper Southrepps Village Sign, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Upper Street, and the van travels to it. Which fluid went in, about how much, and whether your engine has turned over: our technicians check first, since those shape the work.
Next, emptying the tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. A test of the car comes at the end, once fresh diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, if needed, replaced. Engine not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, at Gunton or on a driveway around Upper Street. We check it runs properly on clean diesel before we go. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Upper Street
Upper Street is a small suburban area in Norfolk, situated near the coast and approximately 17.5 miles from Norwich. Upper Street has a population of around 598 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Upper Street sits at an elevation of 44 metres, in a gently sloping landscape near the villages of Southrepps and Thorpe Market.
AdBlue drains in Upper Street and across Norfolk
Over the NR postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Upper Street serve much of Norfolk as well, Southrepps, Lower Street and Thorpe Market among them. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and ask.
Upper Street is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Upper Street: the cost of fixing it
Because the jobs differ, a flat figure wouldn't be fair. What moves the price is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Saint James Church.
For that in mind, each enquiry from Upper Street opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before a figure. Their replies narrow the range right down to one figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Upper Street: still alongside the vehicle?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Upper Street or anywhere within Norfolk.