AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Walcott? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble just starts once your pump starts pulling it. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully rinsed where the vehicle sits around Walcott. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Walcott: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Take your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting NR12 0, or whatever street is closest, and the van finds you straight — so call wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Moving your car just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Ostend Gap.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll your vehicle away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Walcott, whether it is the Tesco or somewhere else. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, which is why a car filled in Witton Bridge yesterday and never started remains the simple one, as long as no one turns your key.
Two kinds of damage come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. A motor left standing in Walcott with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a fault of thin fuel. Blended into the diesel and left unused, it is no threat at that stage; using the engine is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, so it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Bacton or the middle of Walcott.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside the tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever the car has stopped across Norfolk.
Walcott: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Bacton Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Ostend Place. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Poachers Pocket, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
Rented cars, brand-new cars, company vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles see it most. An identical slip, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you are in Walcott or the rest of Norfolk.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Walcott?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It has been drawn through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may show up, maybe midway across Walcott or coming back from Cubitt Memorial Playing Field. No starting it again to check: stop once safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Walcott sits over 50 miles from the M11; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Walcott to the car park by Walcott Village Sign is a very different job from a run towards Norwich, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been run. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it is noticed soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Walcott
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Walcott: a side street near Coastline Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, roughly how much, plus if the motor has been run: our technicians check first, because those decide the work.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since what remains won't flush out unaided. Next, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of the vehicle. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes at the end. Then our engineers start the car and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at North Walsham or a drive around Walcott. The test before our technicians go is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Walcott, for a moment
Walcott is a small coastal village in Norfolk, situated near the mouth of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Walcott lies at a low elevation of around 7 metres, with its detached houses reflecting the local architectural style. Walcott is close to nearby settlements such as Walcott Green and Broomholm, and is within easy reach of the city of Norwich. Walcott has a population of approximately 520 residents.
Walcott and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the NR postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Walcott reach much of Norfolk as well, Keswick, Walcott Green and Broomholm included. Phone and ask rather than guess if you're by a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Walcott is a coastal village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Walcott: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each callouts differ, a single figure would not be fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Walcott Village Hall.
That's why each call from Walcott starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
The price is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still alongside your car in Walcott?
Then, touch nothing — that's the best step available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Walcott or anywhere across Norfolk.