AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in West Moor? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only comes when the pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in West Moor, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
West Moor, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting NE12 7, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Don't do these:
- Moving the vehicle just a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Great Lime Road.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
Rolling your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever West Moor forecourt you're on, the Morrisons included. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where 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. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Nothing inside an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was intended to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Killingworth Village last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches until it's cleared from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around West Moor with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's only inside that tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. No damage comes as long as it stays unused, blended into your diesel — only when your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of West Moor or out in Killingworth Moor, does more harm than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Tyne and Wear the car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around West Moor
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The refill is rushed outside Westmoor Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken in. Someone tips the bottle in at home, right off Georgian Court, as the day ends. Else, after dark outside West Moor and District Social Club, your vehicle gets topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet motor, or the other motor of a family with one of each fuels — the cars drivers use the least. Wherever you are around West Moor or the rest of Tyne and Wear, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around West Moor, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any might appear, perhaps part way across West Moor or coming back from Gosforth Wood. No starting it again to check: pull over once it is safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the A167(M), under 5 miles from West Moor, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, and so driving towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 5 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing West Moor to the car park by West Moor Community Centre. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the motor has been running. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is noticed soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around West Moor
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around West Moor: a side street close to Olave Lodge, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those answers determine the work.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around West Moor or in a bay at Seaton Delaval. Our engineers make sure it runs correctly on new diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About West Moor
West Moor is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne, near the lakeside in Tyne and Wear. West Moor sits at an elevation of 55 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. West Moor is close to nearby places such as Longbenton, Forest Hall, and Killingworth, and is approximately 3.7 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. West Moor has a population of around 3005 residents.
West Moor and Tyne and Wear: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in West Moor are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Longbenton, Forest Hall as well as Killingworth — and much of Tyne and Wear further out, throughout NE postcodes. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
No moving is needed. In West Moor, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: your vehicle is drained on the spot, be it on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in West Moor: the cost of fixing it
Not one single figure could be fair, since each job is different. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Dial Cottage (George Stevensons Listed Home).
Before a figure, never after, every call from West Moor begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. When they are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
West Moor: still alongside the car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in West Moor or wherever within Tyne and Wear.