Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bircotes
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and the ignition too. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Bircotes, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Bircotes: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a DN11 8 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it is pointless.
- Even a short stretch down Scrooby Road is too far to drive it.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Moving the car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Bircotes forecourt you are on, the Asda or any other. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. No part in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Scrooby last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. A motor left sitting in Bircotes with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the another forecourt nearby, and the problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside the tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be diluted. 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 the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Bawtry or the middle of Bircotes.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere in Nottinghamshire the car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Bircotes
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; many designs allow it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Harworth CofE Academy. Someone pours the bottle in at home, just off Grosvenor Road, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Game Cock, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a company vehicle, or the spare vehicle of a family with both fuel types — the cars people know least. Anywhere across Nottinghamshire, Bircotes included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Bircotes: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through the filter and pipework.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Snipe Park Wood, say, or midway across Bircotes. Once you safely can, pull over then switch everything off — with no restarting to test. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the Doncaster By-Pass, under 3 miles from Bircotes, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Hopping across Bircotes to the car park by Bircotes Library is one thing; heading towards Doncaster, under 10 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the car has stopped, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. When it's caught soon, permanent damage is very unusual.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Bircotes: what it takes
A street by Harworth & Bircotes Town Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the car has stopped around Bircotes, our engineers travel to it. Three replies shape the work, so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, plus if your motor has run.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on new diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, outside Worksop or on a drive around Bircotes. Our technicians check it runs properly on fresh diesel before we go. As the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Bircotes
Bircotes is a small village in Nottinghamshire, situated near the towns of Harworth and Styrrup, with Doncaster to the north. Bircotes lies in a low-lying area of the East Midlands, at an elevation of around 40 metres, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Bircotes is home to a population of approximately 1460 people, and is located near the village of Serlby. Bircotes is about 137.6 miles north of London, making it a relatively rural community in the region.
AdBlue drains across Nottinghamshire, Bircotes included
Throughout the DN postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs in Bircotes serve much of Nottinghamshire as well, Harworth, Styrrup and Serlby included. Ring and check rather than guess if you're close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
A mobile service suits Bircotes, a rural village: there's no need to take your car to us, because we empty it there, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Bircotes?
No single price would be fair, since every job is different. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Harworth & Bircotes Sports & Social Club.
Before any quote, never afterwards, each call from Bircotes begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if the engine ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
The price is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Bircotes: still alongside your car?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Bircotes or anywhere within Nottinghamshire.