AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in West Looe? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system draws it in. In West Looe, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around West Looe: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Call just where you are. Say a PL13 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Don't:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Barn Meadow Park.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
The staff working at any West Looe forecourt — the Texaco among them — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On the drive, the vehicle remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very place the intake draws from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits underneath your diesel, which is how a car filled in Hannafore last night and never started stays the straightforward case, provided no one turns the key.
After it is pulled in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny channels; and, because it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning around West Looe leaves it worse. In that tank only, time costs nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your car sits in Shutta or the heart of West Looe, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits just in your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever the car has stopped around Cornwall.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around West Looe?
It is not on purpose. Many cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. A bottle picked up while driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Looe Primary Academy the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off West Looe Hill. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Jolly Sailor, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the other motor in a family with one of each fuels — the cars drivers use the least. Anywhere around Cornwall, West Looe included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
West Looe: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from The Downs, perhaps, or part way across West Looe. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, under 50 miles from West Looe, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Plymouth, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across West Looe to the car park by St Nicholas. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to flush once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has come to a stop. If it's spotted early, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around West Looe
Wherever it has come to rest in West Looe — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Nelson — the van comes to the car. The work rests on three replies, which we ask for before all else — which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether the engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after the tank is emptied, right there. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of the car comes last, after fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, if your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the last step. Then our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay by Looe or a drive in West Looe. The test before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. As the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About West Looe
West Looe is a suburban area situated on the south coast of Cornwall, near the town of Looe and overlooking the English Channel. West Looe sits at an elevation of around 77 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. West Looe is located near several nearby places, including Looe, Portlooe, and East Looe, and is approximately 14 miles from the city of Plymouth. West Looe has a population of around 1673 residents.
AdBlue drains around West Looe and across Cornwall
The teams that answer AdBlue calls in West Looe also cover the places around it, Looe, Portlooe and East Looe among them, and most of Cornwall beyond, across the PL postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing when you're by a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
West Looe is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle 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 shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around West Looe
Because the callouts vary, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight spot behind Old Guild Hall.
For that in mind, every call from West Looe begins with the identical trio — which fluid went in, how much, whether the engine ran — before a quote. Their answers narrow the range down to a single figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear our quote on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
West Looe: still alongside your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Cornwall, West Looe included.