AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Watnall? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes when your pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Watnall, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has run. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Watnall, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which stops anyone switching the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Ring right where you are. Say a NG16 1 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Do not:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch down Stannier Way.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Rolling the car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Watnall forecourt you're on, the Sainsbury's included. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the gas. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor filled on a drive in Greasley yesterday evening and not started since is the simple case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
It does two kinds of damage 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 labouring on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Pipes holding AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle parked in Watnall. Only in that tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that's the main issue. Harm just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Giltbrook or the middle of Watnall.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever in Nottinghamshire the car sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Watnall?
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap — may appear the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs allow it. A bottle bought when heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Hollywell Primary School the top-up is hurried. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a drive near Kirtley Close. One more version: dim light, a pub car park by Royal Oak, and a driver using that flap the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers use the least. Anywhere across Nottinghamshire, Watnall as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Watnall?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been sucked through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Perhaps returning from Watnall Green, or part way across Watnall, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. No starting it again to check: pull over once it is safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M1, under a mile from Watnall, at the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so heading for Nottingham, under 10 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Watnall to the car park by The Watnall WI Hall. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been run. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it's noticed early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Watnall: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Watnall — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road beside No. 12 Group RAF — the van comes to the car. Before anything else we ask what went in, about how much, and whether your engine has run, since those replies decide the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one after your tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains will not flush out unaided. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Then we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking space at Bulwell or a drive in Watnall. It's checked on fresh diesel to be sure it runs properly before our engineers leave. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Watnall, briefly
Watnall is a village in Nottinghamshire, situated approximately 5 miles from Nottingham, and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Watnall sits inland, with an elevation of around 116 metres, and is located near to the villages of Kimberley, Swingate, and Nuthall. Watnall has a population of around 1965 residents, and is within commuting distance of Nottingham. Watnall is also some 114 miles north of London, making it a relatively accessible location.
AdBlue drains across Nottinghamshire, Watnall included
AdBlue jobs in Watnall are passed to vans that serve the towns near it — Kimberley, Swingate as well as Nuthall — and much of Nottinghamshire further out, throughout NG postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Watnall, a rural village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Watnall?
There's no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. Three things change the price: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind Kimberley School War Memorial.
That's why every call from Watnall starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. Given those replies, the range shrinks to one firm number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still next to the vehicle around Watnall?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether it ran is everything our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Nottinghamshire, Watnall included.