AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Birkacre? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the engine off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm starts till the engine sucks it round. In Birkacre, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Birkacre, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Which product, and about how much amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting PR7 3, or just the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the car: your motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant your ignition goes on, so keep the car off.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch up Rufford Close.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
The staff working at any Birkacre forecourt — the Asda included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave it just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. No part in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the pickup takes its supply from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Heath Charnock last night and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of the tank, untouched — but it will be first through if your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it till morning in Birkacre makes it worse. Inside your tank only, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel running past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the whole problem. Blended into your diesel and sitting unused, it is no threat at that stage; running your engine does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the car sits in Coppull or the heart of Birkacre, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Lancashire the vehicle is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Birkacre
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — may look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs invite it. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Chorley All Saints Church of England Primary School and Nursery Unit. Close to Burgh Hall Road, someone pours a container in at home in the evening. One more version: darkness, a pub car park by The Minstrel, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least known cars see it most. An identical mistake, an identical first response — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around Birkacre or the remainder of Lancashire.
Birkacre: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been sucked through your filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may show up, perhaps part way across Birkacre or returning from Plock Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M61, under 3 miles from Birkacre, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so heading for Preston, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Birkacre to the car park by Yarrow Valley Country Park. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Birkacre: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that's a street beside Jonathan Holland, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt around Birkacre, and the van travels to it. The work depends on three answers, and our engineers ask for first — which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether the engine has turned over.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as we have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Birkacre or in a bay outside Chorley. Before we go, we make sure it's running smoothly with new diesel in. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Birkacre, briefly
Birkacre is a locality situated on the shores of a lake in Lancashire, with an elevation of around 85 metres. Birkacre lies approximately 9 miles from Preston and 181 miles from London, placing it in a relatively rural setting. Birkacre is characterised by its semi-detached housing and proximity to nearby places such as Weld Bank and Chorley Moor. Birkacre has a population of around 1031 residents.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Birkacre included
AdBlue jobs in Birkacre are passed to teams that serve the towns near it — Weld Bank, Red Bank plus Chorley Moor — and most of Lancashire beyond, throughout PR postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Birkacre is a small village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Birkacre: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Eaves Green Community Centre.
Ahead of a figure, not after, every enquiry from Birkacre begins with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Once those are answered, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle in Birkacre, still?
Then, do nothing — that is the best move available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Birkacre or anywhere across Lancashire.