Battledown: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The harm begins once it's sucked through your lines — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Battledown. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Battledown, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Which fluid, and roughly what volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can know.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting GL52 6, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Don't do these:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift the car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Stanley Road.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
The staff working at any Battledown filling station — the Sainsbury's among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. On the drive, your car remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very place the intake sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Lynworth last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny channels; and, because it attacks some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. Overnight, a car sitting around Battledown with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is just inside that tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Bouncers Lane Service Station and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed through your diesel and left unused, it is harmless for now; using your engine is the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. 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 the vehicle is in Ryeworth or the middle of Battledown.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever across Gloucestershire your vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Battledown
It's not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Holy Apostles' Church of England Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up your car. A driver tips the bottle in outside their house, just off Harp Hill, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Hewlett Arms, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Hired cars, brand-new vehicles, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known cars see it most. Anywhere across Gloucestershire, Battledown included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Battledown?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
Maybe returning from Priors Farm Playing Field, or part way across Battledown, the motor may go rough, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M5, under 5 miles from Battledown, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Battledown to the car park by Hewlett's Camp is a very different job from a run towards Gloucester, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
We do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. When it is caught soon, lasting damage is very unusual.
Battledown: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The car stays put, whether that's a street near Oakley Community Resource Centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt in Battledown, and the van comes to it. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, plus whether your engine has turned over: we check before all else, since those decide the job.
Then that tank is drained where your car stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced if it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. Not run? Then count on 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.
Bleeding the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Whether it's a parking space at Cheltenham Spa or a drive in Battledown, that is where we fire it up and you set off. Our engineers check it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Battledown itself
Battledown is a suburban area located on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 3783 residents. Battledown sits near the cities of Gloucester and Cheltenham, and is close to smaller places like Oakley and Whaddon. Battledown is positioned at an elevation of 120 metres, within the wider South West region of England. Battledown is about 86 miles west of London, making it a relatively accessible location.
Battledown and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the GL postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Battledown reach most of Gloucestershire too, Oakley, Whaddon and Ham included. Near a border, or somewhere awkward to explain? Asking beats assuming, so phone.
A mobile service fits Battledown, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Battledown
Each job differs, so not one fixed price would be honest. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Charlton Kings Cricket Club.
Ahead of a quote, never afterwards, every call from Battledown opens with three checks: the liquid, the amount, and if it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Battledown and still next to the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say 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 Battledown or anywhere within Gloucestershire.