Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Arlingham
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition as well. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts till the engine sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Arlingham, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Arlingham
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting GL2 7, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van finds you directly — so ring wherever you stand.
Never:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is wasted.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Woolthorpe Lane.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
On a forecourt around Arlingham, whether it's the Texaco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the car away from the pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
It does not combine. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is how a car filled in Newnham last night and not started stays the simple one, as long as no one turns your key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight around Arlingham leaves it worse. In your tank alone, time does nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Esso. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the next tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Arlingham or out in Awre, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around Gloucestershire the vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Arlingham?
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Usually it's not the forecourt: someone picks up a container driving home and tips it in outside the house.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Newnham St Peter's Church of England Primary School. After work, a container goes in on a drive near Silver Street. Else, in dim light by The Red Lion, the car gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — rentals, new cars, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuels. Wherever in Gloucestershire, Arlingham as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it switched off.
Arlingham: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Perhaps coming back from Smith's Wood, or part way across Arlingham, the engine may go lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M5, under 5 miles from Arlingham, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Mileage counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system, and so driving for Gloucester, under 10 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Arlingham to the car park by Arlingham Free Church. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been run. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it is spotted early.
Arlingham: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Arlingham: a side street close to Saint Augustines Working Farm, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job depends on three answers, which we ask for before all else — which fluid was put in, the amount, and if the engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one when your tank is drained, on the spot. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Cam & Dursley or a drive around Arlingham, that is where our technicians start the car and you drive off. Before we leave, our technicians confirm it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Arlingham and where it is
Arlingham is a small village in Gloucestershire, situated near the confluence of the River Severn and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. Arlingham sits at a low elevation of around 16 metres, close to the coastal plain of the Severn Estuary. Arlingham is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and rural setting, with nearby villages including Overton and Fretherne.
AdBlue drains across Arlingham and Gloucestershire
Over the GL postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Arlingham reach much of Gloucestershire as well, Overton, Fretherne and Priding among them. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service suits Arlingham, a coastal village: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Arlingham?
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Saint Mary the Virgin.
With that reason, each call from Arlingham begins by asking the identical trio — what was put in, how much, if it ran — before any figure. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
The quote is given on the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Next to the car in Arlingham, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran is everything we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Gloucestershire, Arlingham included.