AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Binsey? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition as well. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The harm begins once it is sucked through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully flushed where the car stands in Binsey. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Binsey: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Which fluid, and about how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Ring just where you are. Say a OX2 0 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run the pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch down Binsey Lane.
- Emptying the tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
The staff working at any Binsey filling station — the BP included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Lower Wolvercote last night and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through once the engine runs, ahead of 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 is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. A car left standing around Binsey with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Welcome Break's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole problem. Blended through the diesel and left unused, it is no threat for now; running your engine does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It can't just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue separates again out of the diesel, and so thinning it won't help. Hence the flush counts more, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Botley or the heart of Binsey equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Oxfordshire the vehicle is sitting.
Binsey: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A bottle bought while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical route.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Philip and James' Church of England Aided Primary School Oxford the refill is hurried. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Western By-pass Road. One more version: dim light, the car park by The Perch, and a driver using 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 motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are in Binsey or the rest of Oxfordshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Binsey?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — with any running — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may appear, perhaps part way across Binsey or coming back from Church Grove. No starting it again to test: pull over once safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Binsey sits under 10 miles from the M40; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Binsey to park beside Medley Sailing Club and a drive of under 3 miles for Oxford are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to flush once your engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Noticed early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Binsey?
The car remains where it is, whether that's a street beside Oxford University Canoe and Kayaking Club, a drive, a layby or a forecourt around Binsey, and the van travels to it. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, plus whether the engine has been run: our technicians check before all else, because those decide the job.
Next, emptying the tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush counts far more with AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not wash away on its own. Testing your car follows at the end, after fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter gets flushed or, where necessary, replaced. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. At that point our engineers start it and you set off, whether from a parking space by Oxford or a drive in Binsey. We check it runs correctly on clean diesel before we go. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Binsey and where it is
Binsey is a small hamlet situated on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, with a low elevation of around 59 metres. Binsey lies close to the city of Oxford, being only 1.6 miles away, and is near other places such as Walton Manor and Jericho. Binsey has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant in the area. Binsey is located within the South East region of England, approximately 52.9 miles from London.
Binsey and Oxfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the OX postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs in Binsey serve much of Oxfordshire too, Walton Manor, Jericho and New Botley among them. Close to a border, or somewhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Wherever the car sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Binsey, a rural hamlet, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Binsey?
Not one single figure would be honest, because each job is different. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Seacourt Deserted Medieval Village.
Ahead of a quote, never after, each enquiry from Binsey opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. When they are answered, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. While our engineer is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Next to the car around Binsey, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Binsey or wherever within Oxfordshire.