AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Alcester? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition as well. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing starts till your motor sucks it through. In Alcester, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Alcester
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SP7 8, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Moving the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so leave the car off.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch down St John's Hill is too far to drive it.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the verge.
Ask the attendants to help you move your vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Alcester, whether it's the Esso or somewhere else. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Shaftesbury overnight and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through if the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car parked in Alcester. Only in the tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a second kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Tesco. No damage is done as long as it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following fill, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, so watering it can't help. Hence the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Ivy Cross or the centre of Alcester equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever across Dorset the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Alcester: how it ends up there
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two can appear identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside The Abbey CofE VA Primary School, Shaftesbury. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Breach Lane. Or the car is topped up in the car park at Ye Old Two Brewers Inn, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere around Dorset, Alcester included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Alcester?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Rolt (Millennium Green), or part way across Alcester, your engine may go lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
On the M27, under 50 miles from Alcester, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Alcester to the car park by Oldest House in Shaftesbury is a very different job from a run towards Salisbury, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the car has ended up, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Long-term damage is very unusual if it is noticed early.
Alcester: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest in Alcester — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road by St James — the van travels to the car. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if the motor has been run, since those replies settle this work.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers turn up, provided your motor has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. You drive off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Alcester or in a space by Gillingham (Dorset). The check before our technicians go is that it runs correctly on new diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Alcester and where it is
Alcester is a suburban area in Dorset, situated inland at an elevation of 184 metres, and is located near the cities of Salisbury and Shaftesbury. Alcester sits within a wider landscape of rolling hills and countryside, close to nearby places such as St James, Enmore Green, and Long Cross. Alcester has a population of around 1076 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Alcester and Dorset
St James, Enmore Green and Long Cross are among the places around Alcester that the same teams serve, along with much of Dorset beyond, over the SP postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No moving is needed. In Alcester, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your car is drained where it stands, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Alcester: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each callouts vary, a single price wouldn't be fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Castle Hill.
For that in mind, each call from Alcester opens by asking the same trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of a figure. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Alcester and still alongside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Alcester or anywhere within Dorset.