AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Bacup? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. In Bacup, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Bacup, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take the keys out.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what volume? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Tell us a postcode starting OL13 9, or whichever street lies nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: your motor remains off.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Market Street.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
Moving the vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Bacup forecourt you're on, the Texaco or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Greave 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 pulled it in.
After it's pulled in, the damage takes two forms. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches till it's cleared completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny channels. Pipes holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked in Bacup. Only in that tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is in the tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the following fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Bacup or out in Broad Clough, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside that tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Lancashire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Bacup
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. No one means it. A bottle bought when heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical story.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside Bacup Thorn Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped in. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Burnley Road, as the day ends. Else, in dim light by the pub in the village, your car gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a company motor, or the spare motor in a family with both fuel types — the cars drivers know least. Wherever you're around Bacup or the rest of Lancashire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bacup?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Bacup Golf Course, say, or part way across Bacup. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep it off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M66, under 10 miles from Bacup, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Hopping across Bacup to the car park by Christ Church with St John is one matter; driving towards Manchester, under 25 miles away, is another, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after your engine has been run. If it is caught soon, lasting damage is very rare.
Bacup: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A road beside Bacup Christ Church, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in Bacup, our technicians travel to it. The job depends on three replies, and we get before all else — what was put in, the amount, and if your motor has run.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A full flush matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue won't clear out by itself. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, if your engine has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, your system is primed with new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Walsden or on a drive in Bacup. Our engineers check it runs properly on clean diesel before we go. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bacup, for a moment
Bacup is a town in Lancashire, situated in the Rossendale Valley, with the River Irwell running along its edge. Bacup sits at an elevation of 256 metres, surrounded by hills and moorland, and is located near the communities of Lane Head and Huttock Top. Bacup has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterized by terraced homes, reflecting its industrial heritage. Bacup is also close to other nearby places, including Rockliffe, and is within commuting distance of Manchester, which is 15.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Bacup and across Lancashire
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Bacup also cover the locations round it, Lane Head, Huttock Top and Rockliffe among them, and most of Lancashire beyond, across the OL postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or somewhere awkward to explain.
A van that comes to you fits Bacup, a riverside town: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Bacup?
There is no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. What shifts the price is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Broadclough Dykes.
That is why every call from Bacup starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to your car around Bacup?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Bacup or anywhere in Lancashire.