AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Wall? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and your ignition as well. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The harm begins once it is pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Wall. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Wall: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Pocket your keys, and that prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting TR27 5, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: your motor remains off.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way along Parc Tye Lane.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
The attendants working at any Wall filling station — the Shell among them — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was intended to travel through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Carnhell Green last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches till it is removed from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. A motor left standing in Wall with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Texaco, and the issue is diluted fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the following fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Wall or out in Gwinear, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Cornwall your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still inside the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
Wall: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and in dim light the two may appear the same. No one means it. A container bought when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Gwinear Community Primary School the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Pen-Tye. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Royal Standard, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars get it most — hire cars, new cars, company ones, and the spare car of a family with one of each fuels. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever around Wall or the rest of Cornwall you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Wall, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Pitch and Putt, say, or midway across Wall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M5, over 50 miles from Wall, at the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so driving towards Truro, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Wall to the car park by St Gwinear. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's spotted quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Wall
A road beside Leedstown Village Hall, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your car has come to rest in Wall, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else we ask what went in, about how much, and if the engine has been run, since those replies decide the work.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Wall or in a bay outside Hayle. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians head off. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Wall, briefly
Wall is a small village in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 78 metres, approximately 14.5 miles from Truro. Wall sits near the villages of Reawla, Rosewarne, and Trenerth, in a region of dispersed settlement and rural landscapes. Wall has a population of around 643 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
Wall and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the TR postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Wall reach much of Cornwall as well, Reawla, Rosewarne and Trenerth among them. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are by a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
No moving is needed. In Wall, a rural village, a mobile service works: your vehicle is drained on the spot, whether in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Wall: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Whether the motor has run, 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, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight gap behind Trevassack Park.
With that reason, each enquiry from Wall begins with the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, if it ran — ahead of any quote. When those are answered, a range turns into one fixed number.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Wall: still next to your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Wall or anywhere in Cornwall.