AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Ventonleague? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it is pulled through the lines — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. In Ventonleague, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ventonleague
Do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting TR27 4, or whichever street lies closest, and our van finds you straight — so ring wherever you stand.
Never:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Ventonleague Row.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Moving your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Ventonleague forecourt you're on, the Texaco or any other. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. A motor topped up on a drive in Angarrack overnight and left unstarted is the simple case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once your engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
After it's sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is cleared out. A motor left sitting in Ventonleague with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside the tank, it causes nothing.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the next fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Ventonleague or out in The Towans, costs more than almost any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Cornwall your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Ventonleague
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A container picked up when heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical story.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Bodriggy Academy the top-up is rushed. Near Caroline Row, someone pours a container in at home in the evening. One more pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside Copperhouse Inn, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
Rented cars, brand-new motors, fleet cars, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Anywhere in Cornwall, Ventonleague included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ventonleague, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Through the filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
Maybe coming back from Hayle Recreation Ground, or midway across Ventonleague, the motor may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or stall. Once you safely can, stop then switch it off — without turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M5, over 50 miles from Ventonleague, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Hopping across Ventonleague to the car park by Marks & Spencer is one thing; driving for Truro, under 25 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Lasting damage is very unusual if it is spotted soon.
Ventonleague: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Ventonleague: a side street near Trevassack Park, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what got in, about how much, and if your engine has been run, since those replies determine the work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains won't wash out unaided. A test of the car comes at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the filter gets flushed or, where necessary, swapped. Engine not run? Then expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. Whether it is a parking bay at Hayle or a driveway around Ventonleague, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. The test before our engineers go is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Ventonleague itself
Ventonleague is a small suburban area in Cornwall, situated near the coast at an elevation of around 20 metres. Ventonleague lies within a short distance of several nearby places, including Copperhouse and Phillack, and is approximately 16 miles from the city of Truro. Ventonleague has a population of around 3359 people, predominantly living in terraced housing.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Ventonleague included
AdBlue call-outs in Ventonleague go to teams that serve the places near it — Guildford, Copperhouse as well as Phillack — and much of Cornwall further out, throughout TR postcodes. Phone and ask rather than guess if you're by a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you suits Ventonleague, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your car to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Ventonleague: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind St Felicitas and St Piala, Phillack Parish Church.
That's why each call from Ventonleague starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. When they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the quote by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Ventonleague: still next to the vehicle?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Ventonleague or anywhere within Cornwall, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.