AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Boldmere? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Boldmere. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Boldmere: the first few minutes
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so don't throw it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting B73 5, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, so leave the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is pointless.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Beacon Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
On a forecourt around Boldmere, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car clear of the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Oscott last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it is sucked in, the harm takes two forms. What is left when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it is flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight in Boldmere leaves it worse. In your tank alone, time costs nothing. Diesel lubricates 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 is commonly worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the whole issue. No harm comes while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only once your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether the car sits in Chester Road or the heart of Boldmere, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in West Midlands the car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Boldmere: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Boldmere Junior School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Wrekin Road. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park by The Bishop Vesey, and a driver using that flap the first time.
Hired cars, brand-new cars, company vehicles, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Boldmere or the remainder of West Midlands you are.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Boldmere?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. It's been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Spinney, say, or midway across Boldmere. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Boldmere sits under 3 miles from the M6; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Boldmere to the car park by Boldmere Library is a very different job from a run towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been started. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it is caught early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Boldmere?
Wherever it has stopped in Boldmere — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Boldmere Methodist Church — the van travels to your car. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if your engine has run, because those replies decide this work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that clean diesel, then a test of the car. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the engine has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. After that our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space by Wylde Green or a drive in Boldmere. We confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before leaving. We do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Boldmere itself
Boldmere is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated approximately 5 miles north of Birmingham city centre. Boldmere sits at an elevation of around 131 metres, with its semi-detached housing stock characteristic of many similar areas in the region. Boldmere is close to nearby places such as New Oscott, Wylde Green, and Short Heath, and is home to a population of around 7236 people. Boldmere is also within commuting distance of Birmingham, making it a popular residential location.
Boldmere and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls around Boldmere also cover the places round it, New Oscott, Wylde Green and Short Heath among them, and most of West Midlands beyond, across the B postcode area. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service suits Boldmere, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your car to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Boldmere
No single price could be honest, because every job differs. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, since an open driveway is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind Wylde Green United Reformed Church.
That is why each call from Boldmere starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. When they are known, a range becomes one fixed number.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Check your policy while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the car in Boldmere?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Boldmere or anywhere in West Midlands.