AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Belle Vale? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens till the motor sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Belle Vale, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Belle Vale
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops someone switching the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly what quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and we will see.
- Tell us a postcode starting L25 2, or whatever street is closest, and the van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short stretch down Hedgefield Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
On a forecourt around Belle Vale, whether it's the Morrisons or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car clear of the pump. On your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bowring Park last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
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 is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left standing around Belle Vale with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a separate kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. Mixed through the diesel and left still, it is harmless at that stage; running the engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following fill, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so thinning it won't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and turning the key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other mistake — in Woolton or the centre of Belle Vale alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Merseyside the car sits.
Belle Vale: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. A driver tips the bottle in at home, just off Childwall Valley Road, as the day ends. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by The Lee Park, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that's the first response to the same mistake, anywhere in Belle Vale or the remainder of Merseyside you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Belle Vale?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Perhaps returning from Lyndene Park, or midway across Belle Vale, your motor might go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or cut out. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M62, under a mile from Belle Vale, at the next junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Hopping across Belle Vale to the car park by Belle Vale Shopping Center is one matter; heading for Liverpool, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the engine has been started. When it's spotted early, lasting damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Belle Vale?
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a street near Our Lady Of The Assumption Roman Catholic Church, a drive, a layby or a forecourt in Belle Vale, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those answers determine the work.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Belle Vale or in a bay by Roby. It is tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our engineers go. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Belle Vale itself
Belle Vale is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the River Mersey and close to the city of Liverpool. Belle Vale has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly made up of semi-detached homes, and is located near other suburban areas such as Gateacre and Childwall. Belle Vale sits at a relatively low elevation of 26 metres above sea level, and is about 5 miles from Liverpool city centre.
AdBlue drains across Belle Vale and Merseyside
Gateacre, Netherley and Childwall are among the places near Belle Vale that the same vans serve, together with most of Merseyside beyond, over the L postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
Wherever the car sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Belle Vale, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Belle Vale: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, so no fixed price is fair. What changes the price is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Before any quote, never afterwards, each call from Belle Vale begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Those replies shrink a range down to one figure.
Our price is given on the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Beside the car around Belle Vale, still?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Belle Vale or anywhere around Merseyside.