Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bannfoot
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your 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 fuel system pulls it in. In Bannfoot, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Bannfoot: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Which product, and roughly how much amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians can see.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting BT62 1, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself starts the pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Heugh Road.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
On a forecourt around Bannfoot, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car away from the pump. On the drive, the car remains just where it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your 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 blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake takes its fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Maghery last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — but it will be first through if your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. 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 working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it till morning around Bannfoot makes things worse. Inside the tank only, waiting costs nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage is done while it stays unused, blended into the diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, so watering it can't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Scotch Street or the heart of Bannfoot equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in County Armagh your car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Bannfoot: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It usually occurs outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside the local primary school, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Welsh Place. Or someone new to that flap tops up your car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside the pub in the village.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the other vehicle of a home with both fuel types — the cars drivers use least. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to the same slip, anywhere in Bannfoot or the rest of County Armagh you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bannfoot?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and pipework.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from the green space at the edge of the village or halfway across Bannfoot. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M77, over 50 miles from Bannfoot, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving towards Armagh, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than hopping across Bannfoot to the car park by the centre. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where your car has stopped, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. If it's caught quickly, permanent damage is very unusual.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Bannfoot
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Bannfoot: a side street near a street just off the centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, since those replies determine this work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Engine not run? Then count on about 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 the system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway around Bannfoot, that is where our engineers start the car and you set off. Before leaving, we check it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Bannfoot itself
Bannfoot is a small locality in County Armagh, situated inland at a low elevation of around 13 metres. Bannfoot lies near the villages of The Birches, Derrytrasna, and Tartaraghan, and is approximately 11.8 miles from the city of Armagh. Bannfoot is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Bannfoot is also relatively distant from major urban centres, with London being around 336.4 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Bannfoot and County Armagh
The Birches, Derrytrasna and Tartaraghan are among the places near Bannfoot that the same vans reach, along with most of County Armagh beyond, throughout the BT postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
A mobile service suits Bannfoot, a small village: there's no need to take the car to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Bannfoot?
Because each jobs vary, a single figure would not be fair. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind the far end of the built-up part.
Ahead of any quote, not after, every call from Bannfoot begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. With those replies, the range shrinks to one fixed number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Bannfoot and still beside the car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Bannfoot or anywhere within County Armagh, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.