AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Abbey Fields? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes once your pump begins drawing it. In Abbey Fields, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Abbey Fields
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it away.
- Ring just where you are. Say a CV8 1 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Shifting your car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance up Borrowell Lane.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
Moving your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Abbey Fields forecourt you are on, the Esso included. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Stored in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Borrowell last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it's pulled in, the harm takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; and, because it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning around Abbey Fields leaves things worse. In the tank only, time does nothing. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the components that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that's the main problem. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back from your diesel, and so watering it can't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Ladyes Hills or the centre of Abbey Fields equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Warwickshire your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Abbey Fields
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver buys a container heading home and pours it in at home.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Hurrying, outside St Nicholas CofE Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. Close to Brookside Avenue, a driver pours a container in at home after work. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Almanack.
Rented motors, new motors, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least known cars see it most. An identical mistake, an identical first step — keep it off — wherever you are around Abbey Fields or the rest of Warwickshire.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Abbey Fields?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might show up, maybe midway across Abbey Fields or returning from the green space at the edge of the village. When safe, stop then switch everything off — with no turning it on again to test. Every start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M40, under 10 miles from Abbey Fields, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system, so driving for Coventry, under 10 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Abbey Fields to the car park by Forest Road WWII Air Raid Shelter. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to clean out once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is spotted early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Abbey Fields: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest in Abbey Fields — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Kenilworth War Memorial — the van comes to the vehicle. Three answers decide the work, and so first our engineers ask what got in, roughly the amount, and if the engine has turned over.
Next, emptying that tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains won't flush away unaided. Testing your vehicle comes last, once clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if needed, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Abbey Fields or in a bay at Kenilworth. It is tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers go. As the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Abbey Fields itself
Abbey Fields is a suburban area located on the River Sowe in Warwickshire, with a mix of housing types but predominantly detached homes. Abbey Fields sits at an elevation of 81 metres, close to the historic town of Kenilworth and the city of Coventry, which is approximately 5 miles away. Abbey Fields is part of the wider Coventry urban area, with nearby neighbourhoods including Abbey End and Castle Green. Abbey Fields has a population of around 3240 residents, who enjoy the area's riverside setting and proximity to local amenities.
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, Abbey Fields included
AdBlue call-outs in Abbey Fields go to vans that serve the towns around it — Abbey End, Kenilworth plus Castle Green — and most of Warwickshire beyond, throughout CV postcodes. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Anywhere the car sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Abbey Fields, a residential suburb, well.
Abbey Fields: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind Kenilworth Library.
That is why every call from Abbey Fields starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. When they are known, a range becomes a single firm number.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Abbey Fields: still beside the vehicle?
In that case, do nothing — that is the best move there is. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Abbey Fields or anywhere across Warwickshire.