AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Wylam? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts once your pump begins pulling it. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully cleaned where your car stands in West Wylam. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around West Wylam: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting NE42 5, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: the motor remains off.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant the ignition goes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up The Copse.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any West Wylam forecourt — the the nearest petrol station among them — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
It doesn't blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Wylam overnight and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when your engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. 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, so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car sitting in West Wylam. Just in your tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Gulf and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and left inside the tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the next fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of West Wylam or out in Ovingham, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Northumberland the car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in West Wylam
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It mostly happens at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Adderlane Academy, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Stonyflat Bank, as the day ends. Another version: darkness, the car park by The Falcon, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to the same slip, wherever around West Wylam or the rest of Northumberland you are.
West Wylam: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. With any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through the filter and lines.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Priestclose Wood or halfway across West Wylam. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the Central Motorway East, under 10 miles from West Wylam, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing West Wylam to park near Ebenezer Methodist Church West Wylam and a drive of under 10 miles for Newcastle upon Tyne are such separate jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after your engine has been run. Long-term damage is very rare if it's noticed quickly.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around West Wylam: what it takes
The car remains put, whether that is a street near Prudhoe Waterworld, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around West Wylam, and our van travels to it. Three answers decide the job, so first our technicians ask what got in, roughly the amount, plus if the engine has turned over.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, after clean diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, if necessary, swapped. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. At that point our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Prudhoe or a drive in West Wylam. Before we leave, our engineers make sure it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About West Wylam, briefly
West Wylam is a suburban area situated on the River Tyne in Northumberland, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. West Wylam sits at an elevation of around 80 metres, overlooking the river and the surrounding countryside. West Wylam is located near the towns of Prudhoe and Low Prudhoe, and is within commuting distance of Newcastle upon Tyne, which is approximately 9 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Northumberland, West Wylam included
AdBlue jobs in West Wylam are passed to teams that cover the places near it — Prudhoe, Low Prudhoe plus Edgewell — and most of Northumberland further out, throughout NE postcodes. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No moving is needed. In West Wylam, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: your car is emptied where it stands, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around West Wylam?
Not one single price would be fair, because each job is different. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open drive is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Prudhoe Golf Club.
What got in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: each West Wylam enquiry opens by asking exactly that, ahead of a figure, not after. When they are known, a range becomes a single fixed figure.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In West Wylam and still alongside the vehicle?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in West Wylam or wherever within Northumberland.