Upton: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once the pump starts drawing it. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully rinsed where the vehicle sits in Upton. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Upton, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting NR13 6, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Do not do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: the engine remains off.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Even a short distance down Riverview Drive is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
Ask the attendants to help you move the car away from the island if you're at a forecourt around Upton, whether it is the BP or somewhere else. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. No part in a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the intake sucks from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Pilson Green yesterday and never started stays the simple case, provided nobody touches your key.
Once it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches till it's cleared from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. Pipes holding AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle parked around Upton. Just inside that tank, it stays stable. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the another forecourt nearby, and this problem is diluted fuel. No harm is done while it stays unused, blended into your diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your car sits in Billockby or the heart of Upton, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest across Norfolk.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Upton: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Acle Church of England Primary Academy the top-up is hurried. Near Saint Margaret's Close, someone tips a bottle in at home in the evening. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The White Horse.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a fleet vehicle, or the spare car of a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. Wherever you're around Upton or the rest of Norfolk, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Upton: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. It's been sucked through your filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Maybe coming back from Secret Garden, or part way across Upton, your engine may run rough, smoke, lose pace, flash the dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M11, over 50 miles from Upton, at the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Upton to the car park by Upton with Fishley Village Sign is a very different job from a run towards Norwich, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's caught early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Upton: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest in Upton — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Upton Village Hall — the van travels to the vehicle. Three answers decide the job, so first our engineers ask what was put in, about what quantity, plus if the engine has run.
Next, emptying the tank right there takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. After that, your filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we turn up, if your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the last step. You drive off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Upton or in a space by Acle. The test before we leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Upton, briefly
Upton is a small village in Norfolk, situated on the riverside at a low elevation of around 5 metres. Upton lies near the villages of Upton Green and Acle, and is close to the city of Norwich, which is approximately 10.8 miles away. Upton has a population of around 684 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Upton is located in the Eastern region of England, about 106.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Upton included
Throughout the NR postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Upton reach most of Norfolk too, Upton Green, Acle and Oby included. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No towing is needed. In Upton, a village, a van that comes to you works: your vehicle is drained on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Upton: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open drive is easier for a technician to get to safely than a tight spot behind Saint Margaret.
That is why each call from Upton starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. Once they are answered, a range turns into one firm figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is travelling, dig out your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Upton: still beside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Upton or wherever within Norfolk.