AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bleet? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and the ignition as well. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble starts once it is sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Bleet, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bleet: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a BA14 6 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is pointless.
- Even a short stretch down Yarnbrook Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
Ask the attendants to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Bleet, whether it's the BP or somewhere else. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits beneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Great Hinton yesterday and never started remains the simple case, as long as no one touches your key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is flushed out. By daybreak, a car parked in Bleet with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is only in your tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a separate kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Texaco. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in the tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Little Marsh or the middle of Bleet.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Wiltshire the vehicle is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Bleet?
Many motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. No one means it. A bottle bought when driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. The refill is hurried outside The Mead Community Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken in. Close to Common Hill, someone pours a container in at home after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park at the pub in the village, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, brand-new cars, company cars, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Same slip, same first step — keep it off — wherever you are in Bleet or the rest of Wiltshire.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bleet?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
You may notice your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Stourton Plantation or halfway across Bleet. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Bleet sits under 15 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Bleet to park near Great Hinton Memorial Hall and a drive of under 10 miles towards Bath are very separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once the motor has been started, and we do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it is spotted early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Bleet
The car stays put, whether that is a road beside Crematorium Chapel, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Bleet, and the van travels to it. Three answers decide the job, so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over.
Then your tank is drained where the vehicle waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since what remains won't wash away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime the system on clean diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Bleet or in a bay outside Trowbridge. Our engineers check it runs correctly on fresh diesel before we go. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Bleet and where it is
Bleet is a small locality in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 49 metres, approximately 9.8 miles from the city of Bath. Bleet lies near other local places such as Cold Harbour and Ashton Common, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing. Bleet is also relatively close to the larger town of Bullenhill, and is about 88 miles west of London.
Bleet and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Cold Harbour, Ashton Common and Bullenhill are among the towns near Bleet that the same vans reach, along with most of Wiltshire beyond, over the BA postcode area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you fits Bleet, a small village: you have no need to bring your car to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Bleet: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because each jobs differ, a single figure would not be fair. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Steeple Ashton Methodist Church.
That's why every call from Bleet starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van sets off, you are told the price by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Bleet: still alongside the vehicle?
Not touching the car is, then, the best thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Wiltshire, Bleet too.