AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westhouses? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your motor off and keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts once your pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Westhouses, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Westhouses: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, which stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting DE55 5, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way up Church Close.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The staff working at any Westhouses filling station — the Esso among them — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. At home, the car remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not blend. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its supply from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, and that is how a car filled in Church Hill last night and not started stays the straightforward case, as long as nobody turns your key.
After it's pulled in, the harm takes two forms. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around Westhouses with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is only in your tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside your tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It can't just be run through, because it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in South Normanton or the middle of Westhouses.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Derbyshire the vehicle is standing.
Westhouses: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill gets rushed outside Westhouses Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken off. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to School Close. One more version: darkness, the car park outside Station, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle of a family with both fuel types — the vehicles people know the least. Same slip, same first response — keep it off — wherever you are in Westhouses or the remainder of Derbyshire.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Westhouses, and the engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Maybe coming back from Doe Hill Country Park, or part way across Westhouses, your engine might go rough, smoke, lose pace, flash your dash or stall. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M1, under 3 miles from Westhouses, at the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system, so heading towards Derby, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Westhouses to the car park by Stonebroom Methodist Church. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Westhouses: what it takes
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Westhouses: a side street near St Peter, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, which our technicians get first — which fluid got in, the quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains won't wash out by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, if your motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the fuel system with new diesel comes last. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Alfreton or on a driveway around Westhouses. It's checked on new diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before we go. As the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Westhouses itself
Westhouses is a village in Derbyshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 109 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Westhouses lies approximately 14 miles north of Derby and 123 miles north of London, near the villages of Blackwell and Stonebroom. Westhouses has a population of around 829 residents, living in a mix of old and new properties, including those on the Acre Ridge Estate. Westhouses is part of the East Midlands region, with the River Amber flowing nearby.
Westhouses and Derbyshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Westhouses go to vans that cover the towns around it — Blackwell, Acre Ridge Estate plus Stonebroom — and most of Derbyshire beyond, throughout DE postcodes. Phone and check rather than guess if you're close to a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Westhouses is a village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Westhouses: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs vary, a single price would not be honest. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Stonebroom Village Hall.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: each Westhouses enquiry begins with exactly those, before a quote, not afterwards. Once those are answered, a range turns into a single firm number.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Beside the car in Westhouses, right now?
Then, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Westhouses or anywhere around Derbyshire.