AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in White Hills? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it's pulled through the pump — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. In White Hills, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, White Hills: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't throw it away.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting NN2 8, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the spot.
Do not do these:
- Shifting your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Link Road.
- By the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
The staff on duty at any White Hills forecourt — the BP among them — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. At your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same spot the intake sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Boughton 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 drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car sitting around White Hills. Just in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Texaco, and the issue is thinned fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Kingsthorpe or the middle of White Hills.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever around Northamptonshire the car has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in White Hills
It is not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. A container picked up while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside Whitehills Primary School, after the dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken off. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to St Mark's Crescent. Else, in dim light outside The Whitehills, your car is refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
Hired cars, brand-new vehicles, company cars, or the spare vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars see it most. Leave it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, wherever in White Hills or the remainder of Northamptonshire you happen to be.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in White Hills?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It's been drawn through your filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Maybe coming back from Leyland Drive Open Space, or midway across White Hills, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the M1, under 5 miles from White Hills, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, so heading towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away, makes a much bigger job than hopping across White Hills to the car park by St Mark's Church. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. When it's spotted soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around White Hills?
Wherever it has stopped in White Hills — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road by St Mark's Church Hall — our van comes to the vehicle. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, and if the motor has turned over: we ask first, because those decide the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when your tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since what remains won't flush away by itself. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The last step is to prime your system on clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, at Northampton or on a driveway around White Hills. Our engineers check it runs correctly on clean diesel before we leave. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About White Hills itself
White Hills is a suburban area in Northamptonshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 95 metres. White Hills lies approximately 17 miles from Milton Keynes and 62 miles from London, placing it within commuting distance of both cities. White Hills is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby neighbourhoods including Spring Park, Boughton Green, and Sunnyside.
AdBlue drains across White Hills and Northamptonshire
Spring Park, Boughton Green and Sunnyside are among the towns around White Hills that the same vans reach, along with much of Northamptonshire further out, throughout the NN postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you're by a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
No moving is needed. In White Hills, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the car is emptied where it stands, be it on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in White Hills: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, so not one fixed quote would be fair. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind The Bee Hive.
Ahead of a quote, not after, every enquiry from White Hills begins with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. Their answers narrow a range down to a single figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still next to the car around White Hills?
Then, touch nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across White Hills or wherever within Northamptonshire, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.