Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bank Hey
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump starts pulling it. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Bank Hey. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Bank Hey: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting BB1 5, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Do not:
- Shifting the vehicle even a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is pointless.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Bank Hey Lane South.
- Emptying the tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
The staff working at any Bank Hey filling station — the BP among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Bastwell last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — but it will be first through once the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
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, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left standing around Bank Hey with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Then there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside the tank, it does nothing.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Cob Wall or the middle of Bank Hey.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere across Lancashire the car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Bank Hey: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and in dim light the two can appear the same. No one intends it. Usually it's not the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Rushing, outside Roe Lee Park Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. Near Bank Hey Lane south, a driver pours a bottle in at home in the evening. Else, after dark by The Farthings, your car gets topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it most — hire cars, new cars, fleet ones, and the spare vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever you are in Bank Hey or the remainder of Lancashire, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bank Hey?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, perhaps part way across Bank Hey or coming back from Roe Lee Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M65, under 3 miles from Bank Hey, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so heading towards Preston, under 10 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Bank Hey to the car park by Kingdom Hall. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to flush once the engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. Permanent damage is very rare when it's noticed quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Bank Hey: what it takes
A street by Masjid e Bilaal, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Bank Hey, we come to it. Which fluid got in, roughly the quantity, and whether your engine has been run: our engineers ask first, because those decide the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after that tank is drained, right there. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the final step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, at Ramsgreave & Wilpshire or on a driveway around Bank Hey. Before leaving, we make sure it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go 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 Bank Hey
Bank Hey is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with nearby places including Sunny Bower and Little Harwood. Bank Hey has a population of around 3268 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Bank Hey sits at an elevation of 181 metres, approximately 9.5 miles from Preston and 184.4 miles from London.
Bank Hey and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Sunny Bower, Little Harwood and Royshaw Hill are among the places around Bank Hey that the same teams serve, along with most of Lancashire further out, throughout the BB postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Wherever the car stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Bank Hey, a residential suburb, well.
Bank Hey: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, so not one single price would be fair. What changes the cost is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind St Gabriel's Church.
Ahead of a quote, not after, each call from Bank Hey begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if the engine ran. Once they are answered, a range becomes a single firm number.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still alongside your car around Bank Hey?
Then, do nothing — that's the best move available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Bank Hey or wherever in Lancashire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.