Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bispham
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and your ignition as well. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble just starts once the pump begins drawing it. In Bispham, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Bispham: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Remove your keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting FY2 0, or whatever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Don't do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift your vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Wyresdale Avenue.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
At a forecourt around Bispham, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. At home, your car remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the very place the pickup draws from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a car filled in Whiteholme yesterday and never started stays the simple one, provided no one touches your key.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches till it's cleared from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in tiny passages. A motor left sitting in Bispham 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 damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Texaco. No damage comes as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only once your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether the vehicle is in Norcross or the centre of Bispham, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere across Lancashire your car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Bispham
Many motors put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and after dark the two can look identical. No one intends it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Usually, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Bispham Endowed Church of England Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken off. Near Fernleigh Close, someone pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by The Albion.
It occurs most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical slip, an identical first step — keep it off — wherever you are around Bispham or the remainder of Lancashire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bispham?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through your filter and lines.
You may notice your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Old Bispham Library Gardens or halfway across Bispham. No starting it again to check: pull over once safe, then switch everything off. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M55, under 5 miles from Bispham, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Bispham to the car park by Bispham Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Preston, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Bispham: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Bispham: a side street close to St Bernadette's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three replies, which our technicians get first — which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if the engine has run.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the final step. Whether it is a parking bay outside Layton or a drive around Bispham, that is where our technicians start the car and you head off. Our engineers make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel before leaving. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bispham, briefly
Bispham is a coastal suburban area in Lancashire, situated near the towns of Norbreck and Warbreck, with Little Bispham to the north. Bispham has a population of around 7119 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Bispham is located close to the coast, with an elevation of just 9 metres above sea level, and is approximately 15 miles from Preston. Bispham forms part of the wider Blackpool urban area, but remains a distinct community with its own identity.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Bispham included
AdBlue jobs around Bispham are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Norbreck, Warbreck as well as Little Bispham — and much of Lancashire beyond, across FY postcodes. Near a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
Bispham is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Bispham: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the jobs vary, a flat price would not be honest. The cost 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 the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind 1st Bispham Scout & Guide Group.
Before any figure, not after, each enquiry from Bispham begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our price by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. As the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Still next to the car in Bispham?
Then, do nothing — that is the best step available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Bispham or anywhere around Lancashire.