Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashton-in-Makerfield
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes when the pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Ashton-in-Makerfield, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ashton-in-Makerfield: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Say a WN4 9 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Do not do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: the engine stays off.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch down Old Road.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you move the car off the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Ashton-in-Makerfield, whether it is the Esso or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not blend. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same place the intake sucks from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bryn last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car parked around Ashton-in-Makerfield. Just in your tank, it stays stable. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing through them, so the water content damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. No harm is done while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only once your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the next fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Ashton-in-Makerfield or out in Rose Hill, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Greater Manchester the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest part of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Ashton-in-Makerfield
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside St Oswald's Catholic Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped in. After work, a container goes in on a drive near Bryn Street. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Brian Boru, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar cars see it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company cars, and the spare car of a family with one of each fuels. Leave it off: that's the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Ashton-in-Makerfield or the rest of Greater Manchester you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ashton-in-Makerfield?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and pipework.
Perhaps returning from King George V Playing Fields, or part way across Ashton-in-Makerfield, your motor may run rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. When you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. Every start pulls more of it through.
Ashton-in-Makerfield sits under a mile from the M6; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Ashton-in-Makerfield to the car park by Ashton Library is one thing; heading for Salford, under 15 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Ashton-in-Makerfield: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Ashton-in-Makerfield — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside Methodist Church — our van travels to your vehicle. The work rests on three replies, which our technicians ask for first — what went in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Next, draining the tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush counts far more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't wash away on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Not run? In that case expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Bryn or a drive around Ashton-in-Makerfield, that is where our technicians fire it up and you drive off. The test before we head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Ashton-in-Makerfield and where it is
Ashton-in-Makerfield is a town situated in Greater Manchester, England, with a lakeside setting. It is located near the town of Wigan, to the south. The town has a notable history as a market centre. Ashton-in-Makerfield is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.
AdBlue drains in Ashton-in-Makerfield and across Greater Manchester
AdBlue jobs around Ashton-in-Makerfield are passed to teams that cover the towns near it — Ashton Heath, Town Green plus Stubshaw Cross — and most of Greater Manchester further out, throughout WN postcodes. Phone and check instead of guessing if you're by a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it there, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Ashton-in-Makerfield, a town, well.
Ashton-in-Makerfield: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each callouts vary, a single price wouldn't be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns 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 spot behind Greensway.
That is why every call from Ashton-in-Makerfield starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. When those are answered, a range becomes a single firm figure.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Ashton-in-Makerfield and still alongside your car?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best move open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Ashton-in-Makerfield or anywhere in Greater Manchester, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.