Warbstow: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens till the motor sucks it through. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully purged where the vehicle stands in Warbstow. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Warbstow, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops someone turning the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PL15 8, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch down Bury Close.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the car off the island if you are on a forecourt in Warbstow, whether it's the Essar or elsewhere. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It doesn't blend. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in Canworthy Water yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when the engine runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. A car left standing around Warbstow with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second kind of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Gulf and you have a problem of thin fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in the tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of the diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Trelash or the centre of Warbstow equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere around Cornwall the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Warbstow: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Warbstow Primary Academy, because the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped in. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Trelawney Close. Else, after dark by the pub in the village, the car gets refilled by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars see it the most — hire cars, new ones, fleet cars, and the spare motor of a family with one of each fuel types. Anywhere around Cornwall, Warbstow as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Warbstow?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Via the filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that's where it travels.
Maybe coming back from Treglith Manor, or part way across Warbstow, your motor might run rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Warbstow sits under 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Warbstow to the car park by Warbstow Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Plymouth, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has come to a stop. When it is noticed quickly, permanent damage is very unusual.
Warbstow: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest around Warbstow — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside St Werburgh, Warbstow — our van travels to your vehicle. The job depends on three answers, and we get before all else — what got in, the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over.
Next, draining the tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes last. Then our engineers start the engine and you drive off, whether from a parking space at the nearest station or a driveway in Warbstow. Our engineers make sure it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Warbstow, for a moment
Warbstow is a small village in inland Cornwall, situated at an elevation of 184 metres and comprising predominantly detached housing. Warbstow lies near the Devon border, approximately 28 miles from Plymouth and 199.6 miles from London. Warbstow is surrounded by nearby places such as Warbstow Cross, Downinney, and Fonston, and has a population of around 527 residents.
AdBlue drains around Warbstow and across Cornwall
Over the PL postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs in Warbstow serve most of Cornwall too, Warbstow Cross, Downinney and Fonston among them. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
Warbstow is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Warbstow
Since each callouts differ, a single price would not be fair. What changes the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Warbstow Bury.
With that reason, every enquiry from Warbstow begins by asking the identical trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether it ran — before a figure. When they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Before a van sets off, you hear the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Next to the vehicle in Warbstow, still?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the best step available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Cornwall, Warbstow included.