Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Atherstone
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and keep your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. In Atherstone, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Atherstone: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting CV9 1, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift your vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down Market Street.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
Rolling the car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Atherstone forecourt you're on, the Tesco included. At home, the car remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It sinks, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Witherley last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it's pulled in, the harm takes two forms. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking any part it reaches until it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. A vehicle left standing around Atherstone with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Murco. No harm comes while it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Pinwall or the middle of Atherstone.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere in Warwickshire your vehicle sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Atherstone
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Outwoods Primary School. After work, a container goes in on a drive near Derby Lane. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Legion, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new car, a fleet motor, or the other motor of a family with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers know least. Wherever around Warwickshire, Atherstone included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Atherstone, and your engine started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Meadow Street Gardens or halfway across Atherstone. When safe, stop and switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Atherstone sits under 5 miles from the M42; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Atherstone to the car park by We Are Here is a very different job from a run towards Coventry, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has been run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. If it's caught early, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Atherstone
Anywhere it has stopped around Atherstone — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road beside North Warwickshire Museum and Community Hub — the van comes to your vehicle. The job rests on three replies, and our technicians ask for before all else — what went in, the amount, and whether your motor has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. A full flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't wash away on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
New diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. Whether it is a parking bay by the nearest station or a driveway around Atherstone, that is where we fire it up and you set off. Before we leave, our technicians check it is running correctly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Atherstone
Atherstone is a town situated on the River Anker in Warwickshire, with a population of around 10989 people. Atherstone sits at an elevation of 89 metres, approximately 11.8 miles east of Coventry and 95.4 miles northwest of London. Atherstone is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and proximity to nearby places such as Mancetter, Whittington, and Merevale. Atherstone remains a residential community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains in Atherstone and across Warwickshire
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs in Atherstone also cover the locations about it, Mancetter, Whittington and Merevale among them, and most of Warwickshire beyond, across the CV postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Atherstone, a riverside town: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Atherstone: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Old Bank House.
That is why each call from Atherstone starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Alongside the car around Atherstone, still?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Warwickshire, Atherstone included.