01293 248666
4.8/5 from 2,190 Trustpilot reviews 24 hours, UK-wideFrom just £89 call-out fee — quoted before anyone travelsFuel Fixer Ltd · company 08520551

Accidentally put AdBlue in diesel tank

Short answer

Accidentally put AdBlue in diesel tank — an accidental AdBlue fill is recoverable as long as the engine has not been started. Do not turn the key, do not move the vehicle on its own power, and call for a drain.

This is the most common call on this site and it very rarely ends badly, because most people notice at the pump. The bottle is designed to look like it belongs in the same place, the AdBlue filler is often beside the diesel filler under the same flap, and on a forecourt at night the two are easy to confuse. Noticing before you start the engine is the whole ball game.

Call 01293 248666 From just £89 call-out fee

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At a glance
The questionAccidentally put AdBlue in the diesel tank
Short answerRecoverable — provided the key has not been turned
What we doAdBlue contamination draining is the entire service: AdBlue in a fuel tank, or something else in the AdBlue tank. Drained, flushed and disposed of, mobile, from just £89 call-out fee.
Helpline01293 248666, 24 hours

Accidentally put AdBlue in diesel tank — what actually happens next

The sequence

  1. Do not turn the key. Do not press start. Ignition alone can prime the pump on many common-rail cars.
  2. Do not move the vehicle under its own power, and do not put it in gear.
  3. If you are on a forecourt, apply the handbrake and tell the station staff.
  4. Note roughly how much AdBlue went in and how much diesel was already in the tank.
  5. Call 01293 248666. Quantity and whether the engine ran are the two questions that set the job.

A technician drains the tank completely, catches the settled urea layer separately, flushes the tank and feed lines with clean diesel, replaces the fuel filter, refills with enough fuel to run, purges the lines and runs the engine under observation before signing off.

The full guide

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What customers say

4.8 out of 5 from 2,190 Trustpilot reviews. What reviewers mention most is that the technician stayed calm and professional with a driver who was embarrassed and stressed, and that somebody arrived when they said they would.

The most common criticism is price. People do not expect a wrong-fluid job to cost what it costs, and that is a fair complaint to publish rather than bury. The answer is the From just £89 call-out fee, a quote given on the phone before a technician travels, and being told when a job cannot be done at the roadside rather than after somebody has arrived and charged for the visit.

Who you are dealing with

This site is published by Forecourt Assist, which operates AdBlue in Fuel. Forecourt Assist is a trading name of Fuel Fixer Ltd, company no 08520551, registered at Fairway House, Portland Road, East Grinstead, RH19 4ET, a company of Fuel Fixer International. The group, Fuel Fixer International, is owned by Stockbridge Capital Holdings.

Reference: Diesel exhaust fluid (Wikipedia).

Across the Fuel Fixer network

These are sister brands of the same company, not unrelated sites. Forecourt Assist keeps the canonical list at forecourtassist.co.uk/network rather than duplicating it here.