AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bordesley Green East? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble starts once it is sucked through your pump — it will not burn, and it will not combine with diesel. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly purged where the car stands around Bordesley Green East. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Bordesley Green East, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and about how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we will know.
- Ring right where you are. Say a B10 9 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch up Fosbrooke Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Emptying your tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
Rolling the car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Bordesley Green East forecourt you are on, the Texaco included. If you're on your own drive, leave the car just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the very place the pickup draws from. A car topped up on a drive in Yardley overnight and not started since counts as the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it reaches until it is removed from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight around Bordesley Green East leaves it worse. In your tank alone, time does nothing. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a separate form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol at the Asda. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in the tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the next fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, and so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Yardley Fields or the centre of Bordesley Green East equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere across West Midlands your car has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Bordesley Green East
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs allow it. Mostly it's not the filling station: someone buys a bottle driving home and tips it in at home.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Bernadette's Catholic Primary School the top-up is hurried. Someone tips the container in outside their house, right off Starbank Road, as the day ends. Else, in dim light outside The Custard House, your vehicle gets topped up by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet car, or the other motor of a home with one of each fuel types — the cars people use least. Leave it off: that's the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere around Bordesley Green East or the rest of West Midlands you are.
Bordesley Green East: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might appear, perhaps part way across Bordesley Green East or coming back from Eco Park. Once safe, pull over then switch it off — without turning it on again to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M6, under 3 miles from Bordesley Green East, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Bordesley Green East to park beside Qamarul Islam Mosque and a drive of under 5 miles for Birmingham are very separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Permanent damage is very unusual when it's caught early.
Bordesley Green East: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that is a street near Al-Hijrah Mosque, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Bordesley Green East, and our van travels to it. Before anything else we ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has run, because those answers determine this work.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not clear out on its own. Testing the car comes last, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, if your engine has not run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Bordesley Green East or in a bay by Adderley Park. Before leaving, our engineers check it is running properly with fresh diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Bordesley Green East and where it is
Bordesley Green East is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city of Birmingham. Bordesley Green East has a mix of terraced housing and local amenities, with nearby areas including Little Bromwich and Hay Mills. Bordesley Green East is located at an elevation of around 124 metres, approximately 3 miles from Birmingham city centre. Bordesley Green East is part of the larger Birmingham urban area, with easy access to the city's facilities and services.
Bordesley Green East and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Bordesley Green East also cover the locations about it, Little Bromwich, Bordesley Green and Hay Mills among them, and most of West Midlands beyond, across the B postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess when you're by a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
No moving is needed. In Bordesley Green East, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the car is drained where it stands, be it on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Bordesley Green East
Not one flat price would be fair, because each job differs. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Al-Hijrah Library.
Before a figure, never afterwards, each call from Bordesley Green East begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, and if it ran. Those replies narrow the range down to one number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Bordesley Green East: still next to your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Bordesley Green East or wherever within West Midlands, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.