AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Alveston? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens till your motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Alveston, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Alveston, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BS35 3, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the vehicle: your motor stays off.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave the car off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way up Greenhill Down is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Rolling your car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Alveston forecourt you're on, the Tesco included. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it treats the gas. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the same spot the intake draws from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, which is why a car filled in Old Down yesterday and never started stays the straightforward one, as long as no one turns the key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, working on any part it touches till it is removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car parked in Alveston. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Thornbury Motors and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, and so watering it can't work. Hence the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Gillingstool or the centre of Alveston alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever across Gloucestershire the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Alveston: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. No one intends it. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside St Helen's Church of England Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Bannetts Tree Crescent. Otherwise, in dim light by Ship Inn, your car gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company ones, and the spare car of a family with one of each fuels. Anywhere around Gloucestershire, Alveston included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first step: keep it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Alveston, and your engine started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Thornbury Cricket Club or halfway across Alveston. Once you safely can, stop then switch it off — with no turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M5, under 3 miles from Alveston, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Alveston to the car park by Alveston Methodist Church is a very different job from a run towards Bristol, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been started. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's spotted early.
Alveston: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Alveston: a side street near St Helen's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, roughly the quantity, and if your engine has been run: our engineers check before all else, because those shape the work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Testing your car follows last, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes last. Whether it's a parking space outside Patchway or a driveway in Alveston, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Before we leave, we confirm it is running correctly with new diesel in. We do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Alveston, for a moment
Alveston is a village in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and approximately 96 metres above sea level. Alveston lies close to the cities of Bristol and the surrounding areas of Alveston Down and Lower Hazel. Alveston has a population of around 2376 people and predominantly consists of detached housing. Alveston is located about 9.9 miles from Bristol and 103.4 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Alveston and across Gloucestershire
AdBlue call-outs in Alveston are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Alveston Down, Lower Hazel plus Rudgeway — and much of Gloucestershire beyond, across BS postcodes. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
No moving is needed. In Alveston, a coastal village, a van that comes to you works: the vehicle is drained where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Alveston: the cost of fixing it
No flat figure would be fair, since every job is different. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Alveston War Memorial.
For that reason, each enquiry from Alveston opens with the same trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Given them, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Still alongside the vehicle in Alveston?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Alveston or anywhere around Gloucestershire.