Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Adeney
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system draws it in. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Adeney. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Adeney
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TF10 8, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Many diesels run their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Adeney Road.
- Emptying that tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
Rolling the car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Adeney forecourt you are on, the Shell included. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than blending — entirely unlike fuel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup draws its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Longford last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it's cleared out. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning around Adeney makes things worse. Inside the tank only, time costs nothing. Then there is the water: it offers no protection to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Esso's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the whole issue. Mixed through your diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; running your engine does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your vehicle is in Edgmond Marsh or the heart of Adeney, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around Shropshire the vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Adeney?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs allow it. A container bought while heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical story.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Peter's Church of England Controlled Primary School and Nursery the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off High Street. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car after dark, parked in the car park by the pub in the village.
It happens most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere across Shropshire, Adeney as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Adeney, and your engine started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe coming back from Strine Covert, or midway across Adeney, your motor might run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or cut out. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Adeney lies under 10 miles from the M54; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
A quick hop across Adeney to the car park by St Peter is one thing; driving for Wolverhampton, under 25 miles away, is another, since every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is spotted soon.
Adeney: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road beside Edgmond Methodist Church, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has come to rest in Adeney, we come to it. Three answers decide the job, and so before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about what quantity, and if your motor has turned over.
Next, draining your tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush counts far more with AdBlue than after petrol, because residue will not wash away on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, if the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking space at Oakengates or a driveway around Adeney, that is where our technicians start the engine and you head off. It is checked on new diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers leave. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Adeney
Adeney is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Shropshire, with a low elevation of around 65 metres. Adeney lies near several other small settlements, including Cheswell, Tibberton, and Edgmond, and is located approximately 18 miles from Wolverhampton. Adeney has a population of around 806 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Adeney is also relatively distant from London, at around 131 miles away.
Adeney and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the TF postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Adeney reach much of Shropshire as well, Cheswell, Tibberton and Edgmond included. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Adeney is a rural hamlet, 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 is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Adeney: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the jobs vary, a single price wouldn't be fair. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind All Saints,Tibberton.
That is why every call from Adeney starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single fixed figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Adeney: still next to the vehicle?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Shropshire, Adeney included.