AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Yelverton? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition as well. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till the engine pulls it round. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Yelverton. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Yelverton: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PL20 6, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so keep the car off.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Even a short way up Meavy Lane is too far to drive the car.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you are at a forecourt in Yelverton, whether it's the Texaco or elsewhere. On that drive, the car stays just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the same spot the pickup draws from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, which is how a car topped up in Chub Tor last night and not switched on remains the simple one, provided nobody touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays in there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Yelverton leaves it worse. Inside the tank only, time costs nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Tesco. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is in the tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Roborough Down or the centre of Yelverton alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Devon the vehicle is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Yelverton: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Horrabridge Primary & Nursery School the refill is rushed. A driver tips the container in outside their house, right off Tavistock Road, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park by The Devon Tors.
Hired motors, brand-new cars, company vehicles, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Wherever around Devon, Yelverton as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Yelverton, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
You may notice your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Walkham valley scouts field or halfway across Yelverton. No starting it again to test: pull over when safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M5, under 50 miles from Yelverton, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
A quick hop across Yelverton to the car park by St Paul is one matter; driving towards Plymouth, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after your engine has been run. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it is caught early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Yelverton?
Wherever it has stopped in Yelverton — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Rock Methodist Church — the van comes to your car. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, and if your engine has turned over: our engineers ask before all else, because those decide the work.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. After that our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Bere Alston or a driveway in Yelverton. Our technicians confirm it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we leave. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Yelverton and where it is
Yelverton is a village situated on the River Meavy in Devon, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 1222 residents. Yelverton sits at an elevation of 189 metres, near the outskirts of Dartmoor National Park, and is located approximately 8.7 miles from Plymouth. Yelverton has a rural character, with nearby villages such as Harrowbeer and Axtown, and is close to the scenic Lake area.
AdBlue drains around Yelverton and across Devon
Harrowbeer, Axtown and Lake are among the places around Yelverton that the same teams reach, along with much of Devon further out, over the PL postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
A mobile service suits Yelverton, a village: there's no need to take the car to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Yelverton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Battle Headquarters.
With that reason, each enquiry from Yelverton begins by asking the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, whether it ran — before a figure. Their replies narrow a range right down to one figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Yelverton: still alongside the vehicle?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Yelverton or wherever within Devon, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.