Wadebridge: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your engine. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts until your engine pulls it round. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Wadebridge. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wadebridge: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not bin it out.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a PL27 7 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down The Platt.
- Emptying that tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
Moving your vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Wadebridge forecourt you are on, the Tesco included. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps separate rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Egloshayle last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Once it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, working on any part it touches till it's removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow passages. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight around Wadebridge makes things worse. In that tank only, waiting does nothing. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Crystals and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue splits back from the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Bodieve or the heart of Wadebridge equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Cornwall the vehicle is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Wadebridge: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought while driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Breock Primary School the refill is hurried. Someone pours the bottle in at home, just off Eddystone Road, as the day ends. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by Bridge on Wool, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical mistake, same first step — leave it off — wherever you are around Wadebridge or the remainder of Cornwall.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Wadebridge, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through your filter, along the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
Perhaps coming back from Coronation Park, or part way across Wadebridge, your engine might run rough, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or cut out. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M5, over 50 miles from Wadebridge, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Wadebridge to park beside Wadebridge Town Hall and a drive of under 25 miles for Truro are such separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it's caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Wadebridge?
The car remains put, whether that is a road beside Regal, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt around Wadebridge, and the van travels to it. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run, because those replies determine this work.
Then that tank is emptied where your car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue won't flush away by itself. After that, your filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of your car. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the fuel system is bled with new diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, by Roche or on a drive around Wadebridge. It's tested on new diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our engineers go. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Wadebridge itself
Wadebridge is a small town in north Cornwall, situated on the Camel Estuary near the coast. Wadebridge sits at a low elevation of around 6 metres, close to the nearby villages of Trenant and Dunveth. Wadebridge has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Wadebridge is located near the town of Polmorla and is within commuting distance of the city of Truro.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, Wadebridge included
Over the PL postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Wadebridge reach most of Cornwall as well, Trenant, Dunveth and Polmorla among them. Near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
A mobile service fits Wadebridge, a coastal town: there's no need to take your car to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Wadebridge: the cost of fixing it
No single price would be honest, since every job differs. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Wadebridge Library.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Wadebridge call begins with exactly that, before any quote, not afterwards. Once those are known, a range turns into one fixed number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still beside your car around Wadebridge?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Wadebridge or anywhere around Cornwall.