AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Birstall? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes when your pump begins pulling it. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully flushed where your car sits around Birstall. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Birstall: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Call right where you are. Say a LE4 4 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's pointless.
- Even a short way up Wanlip Road is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your car off the island if you are at a forecourt in Birstall, whether it is the BP or somewhere else. On the drive, the vehicle stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not combine. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in Mowmacre Hill yesterday evening and left unstarted is the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once your motor runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; and, since it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. By daybreak, a car parked around Birstall with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's just in that tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the components that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more major than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and the problem is diluted fuel. No harm is done while it stays put, blended into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Belgrave or the middle of Birstall.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Leicestershire the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
Birstall: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap — may appear the same. No one intends it; many designs allow it. Mostly it is never the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Riverside Community Primary School Birstall the top-up is hurried. Near Sibson Road, someone tips a bottle in on the drive after work. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at Earl of Stamford, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Hired cars, new cars, company cars, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars see it most. Anywhere in Leicestershire, Birstall included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
Birstall: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
Maybe coming back from School Lane Playing Fields, or part way across Birstall, the motor may run rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. No restarting to check: stop once it is safe, then switch everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M1, under 5 miles from Birstall, at the next junction and park safely, not driving on.
Hopping across Birstall to the car park by Birstall Village Hall is one matter; heading for Leicester, under 5 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Birstall: what it takes
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Birstall: a side street near St James the Greater, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, about the quantity, plus if your motor has turned over: our technicians ask first, since those decide the job.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't clear away by itself. After that, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, if your engine hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by Syston or on a driveway in Birstall. The test before our engineers go is that it runs correctly on new diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Birstall and where it is
Birstall is a village in Leicestershire, situated on the outskirts of Leicester, near the lakeside and the River Soar. Birstall has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the village is close to nearby places like Thurmaston and Rushey Mead. Birstall sits at an elevation of 62 metres, relatively low compared to other parts of the country, and is about 91 miles northwest of London. Birstall remains a small but distinct community within the larger Leicester urban area.
AdBlue drains across Birstall and Leicestershire
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Birstall also cover the locations around it, Thurmaston, Rushey Mead and Wanlip among them, and most of Leicestershire beyond, across the LE postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you are by a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
No moving is needed. In Birstall, a village, a van that comes to you fits: your car is drained on the spot, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Birstall: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of your car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight spot behind Birstall War Memorial.
With that reason, every enquiry from Birstall begins by asking the same trio — what got in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of a quote. Once they are answered, a range turns into one fixed figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Birstall: still beside the vehicle?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Birstall or anywhere in Leicestershire.