AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Widewell? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the engine off then keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until the motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Widewell, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the engine has been run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Widewell, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so don't throw it away.
- Call right where you are. Quote a PL6 7 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way along Tavistock Road.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
On a forecourt around Widewell, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Nothing inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply 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 Roborough last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. 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, so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Widewell leaves it worse. In your tank only, waiting costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second form of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
An issue of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Asda. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your car is in Glenholt or the centre of Widewell, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside that tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest around Devon.
Widewell: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — can look the same. No one intends it; many layouts invite it. Usually it is not the filling station: a driver buys a container driving home and tips it in outside the house.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Bickleigh Down Church of England Primary School. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Eco Way. Else, after dark by Lopes Arms, the car is topped up by someone using that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new motors, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars see it the most. Wherever you're around Widewell or the remainder of Devon, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Widewell, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It's been pulled through the filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Beverston Big Park (Millennium Green), perhaps, or midway across Widewell. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Widewell sits under 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Widewell to the car park by Roborough Village Hall is a very different job from a run towards Plymouth, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it's spotted early.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Widewell
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Widewell: a side street near St Anne, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the motor has run, because those answers settle the work.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't clear out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed the system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Bere Ferrers or a drive around Widewell, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. The test before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to go to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Widewell, for a moment
Widewell is a suburban area situated near the coast in Devon, with its elevation at around 158 metres providing views of the surrounding landscape. Widewell lies approximately 5 miles from Plymouth, and its proximity to the city has influenced its development as a residential area. Widewell is characterised by its predominance of terraced housing, which reflects the area's history of growth and expansion. Widewell is also close to other nearby places, including Belliver, Woolwell, and Bickleigh Down.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Widewell included
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Widewell also cover the locations round it, Belliver, Woolwell and Bickleigh Down among them, and most of Devon beyond, across the PL postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
Widewell is a residential suburb, 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 technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Widewell?
There's no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. What moves the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Church of the Holy Spirit.
Ahead of any quote, not afterwards, each call from Widewell begins with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus whether it ran. Those answers shrink a range down to a single figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear the price by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In Widewell and still alongside the vehicle?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran is everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Devon, Widewell included.