AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bitton? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only comes when the pump begins pulling it. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly purged where the vehicle stands in Bitton. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bitton: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BS30 6, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch along Baron Close is too far to drive the car.
- Draining the tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
The attendants on duty at any Bitton filling station — the the nearest petrol station included — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. At home, the vehicle stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A motor filled on a driveway in North Stoke yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your motor turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. A car left standing in Bitton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that is the main issue. Blended into the diesel and left unused, it is harmless at that stage; running the motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It can't just be run through, because it doesn't burn. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Cowhorn Hill or the middle of Bitton.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Gloucestershire the vehicle is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Bitton?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — may look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs invite it. A bottle bought when driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the typical route.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside The Meadows Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Aubrey Meads. Otherwise, after dark by The White Hart, the car is topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least known vehicles get it most — rentals, brand-new ones, fleet cars, and the spare motor of a family with one of each fuel types. Wherever you're around Bitton or the rest of Gloucestershire, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bitton?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the filter and lines.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Bitton AFC, perhaps, or midway across Bitton. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep it off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Bitton lies under 10 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Bitton to the car park by St. Mary's is one matter; heading towards Bath, under 10 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has run there is more of it. When it is spotted soon, permanent damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Bitton?
Wherever it has stopped around Bitton — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road by War Memorial — our van comes to the car. Three replies shape the work, and so first our technicians ask what went in, roughly the amount, plus if the motor has run.
Then your tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, your system is primed with clean diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by Keynsham or on a driveway around Bitton. The test before we leave is that it runs properly on new diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Bitton itself
Bitton is a village situated on the River Avon in Gloucestershire, with a low elevation of around 23 metres. Bitton lies near the city of Bath, approximately 5 miles to the east, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Upton Cheyney and Swineford. Bitton has a mix of housing types, but terraced houses are particularly prevalent in the village. Bitton is located in the South West region of England, about 100 miles west of London.
Bitton and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the BS postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Bitton serve much of Gloucestershire as well, Upton Cheyney, Swineford and Willsbridge among them. Guessing won't help close to a border or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Bitton is a 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, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Bitton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single price would be honest, because each job is different. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Upton Cheyney United Reformed Church.
That is why each call from Bitton starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Once they are known, a range turns into a single firm number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. While our engineer is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still beside the vehicle in Bitton?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Bitton or anywhere in Gloucestershire.