Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Boarshurst
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till the engine sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Boarshurst, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Boarshurst, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops someone switching the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting OL3 7, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: the engine remains off.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Steadway.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
The staff working at any Boarshurst forecourt — the Gulf among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Greenfield last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked around Boarshurst. Only in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and this issue is thinned fuel. No damage is done while it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, so watering it can't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Waterside or the centre of Boarshurst alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever across Greater Manchester the car has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
Boarshurst: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens at home, from a container bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Greenfield St Mary's CofE School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. Near Park Lane, someone tips a container in at home after work. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by King William IV.
Rented cars, new cars, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least familiar cars see it the most. Same mistake, same first step — keep it off — wherever you are around Boarshurst or the rest of Greater Manchester.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Boarshurst, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Churchill Playing Fields, say, or midway across Boarshurst. No starting it again to test: stop when safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Boarshurst sits under 10 miles from the M67; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving towards Manchester, under 15 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Boarshurst to the car park by St Mary. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once your engine has been run. If it is spotted soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Boarshurst
Anywhere it has stopped in Boarshurst — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road by Greenfield Methodist Church — our van travels to the vehicle. Which fluid was put in, roughly how much, plus if your motor has turned over: our engineers check first, since those decide the work.
Then that tank is cleared where your car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. A test of your vehicle comes at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and your filter is cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, if your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, at Greenfield or on a drive around Boarshurst. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Boarshurst itself
Boarshurst is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the river and characterised by its terraced housing. Boarshurst sits at an elevation of 203 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Boarshurst is located near several local landmarks, including Fur Lane and Bunkers, and is approximately 10.8 miles from Manchester. Boarshurst has a population of around 2842 residents.
AdBlue drains in Boarshurst and across Greater Manchester
AdBlue jobs around Boarshurst are passed to teams that cover the towns near it — Fur Lane, Bunkers plus Tunstead — and much of Greater Manchester further out, throughout OL postcodes. Guessing won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
A mobile service suits Boarshurst, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Boarshurst
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Greenfield Library.
Before any figure, never after, each call from Boarshurst begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus whether it ran. Once they are known, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside the vehicle around Boarshurst?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the best move there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Boarshurst or anywhere in Greater Manchester.