Whitemoor: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition as well. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens till the engine sucks it through. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly purged where the car sits around Whitemoor. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Whitemoor: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PL26 7, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: the engine remains off.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch along Gunwin Court.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the car off the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Whitemoor, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to go that way.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the intake draws from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Nanpean last night and never switched on stays the straightforward one, provided no one turns your key.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around Whitemoor with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is just in your tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and this problem is diluted fuel. No damage is done as long as it sits put, blended into the diesel — only when the motor works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Enniscaven or the heart of Whitemoor alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Cornwall the vehicle is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Whitemoor
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Usually it is not the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle driving home and tips it in at home.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside Whitemoor Academy, because your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Crown Road, as the day ends. Another version: darkness, the car park by Granville Arms, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you are in Whitemoor or the rest of Cornwall.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Whitemoor?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, maybe part way across Whitemoor or returning from Treviscoe Playing Field. No restarting to test: stop when safe, then switch it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, over 50 miles from Whitemoor, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, and so heading for Truro, under 15 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Whitemoor to the car park by St George. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. If it's noticed quickly, permanent damage is very unusual.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Whitemoor: what it takes
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a street beside St Denys, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Whitemoor, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has run, since those replies determine this work.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Roche or on a driveway around Whitemoor. Before leaving, our technicians check it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Whitemoor, briefly
Whitemoor is a small village in inland Cornwall, situated approximately 229 metres above sea level. Whitemoor lies near the villages of Currian Vale and Gothers, and is around 11.7 miles from the city of Truro. Whitemoor has a population of around 600 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains in Whitemoor and across Cornwall
Currian Vale, Gothers and St Dennis are among the places near Whitemoor that the same vans reach, along with much of Cornwall beyond, over the PL postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Whitemoor is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Whitemoor: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, and so not one single quote would be fair. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of your car, because an open driveway is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind Roman Fort.
What went in, how much, and if the engine ran: every Whitemoor call opens by asking precisely those, ahead of any quote, not after. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle in Whitemoor, still?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Whitemoor or wherever within Cornwall.