AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bradway? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Bradway, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Bradway, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take the keys away.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting S17 4, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch down Bradway Road.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
The staff working at any Bradway forecourt — the Esso among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Mickley last night and never switched on remains the simple case, as long as no one turns the key.
After it's sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow passages and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting till morning around Bradway leaves things worse. In your tank only, waiting costs nothing. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the JET and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm just comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left in your tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the next fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Bradway or out in Totley Rise, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere in South Yorkshire the car sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Bradway?
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Bradway Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills your car. Near Twentywell Lane, a driver tips a container in at home after work. Another version: dim light, the car park outside The Castle, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least known cars see it most — rentals, new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuels. Keep it switched off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever around Bradway or the rest of South Yorkshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bradway, and your engine started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Old Park Wood or halfway across Bradway. No restarting to test: stop once it is safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M1, under 10 miles from Bradway, at the next junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Bradway to the car park by Bradway Community Hall is one thing; heading towards Sheffield, under 5 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once your engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Caught soon, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Bradway: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Bradway: a side street near Dore and Totley golf club, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run, because those answers decide the work.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of your car. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on new diesel. You set off as soon as we have started the car, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Bradway or in a bay at Dore & Totley. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Bradway
Bradway is a suburban area situated approximately 4.7 miles southwest of Sheffield city centre, at an elevation of 201 metres. Bradway occupies a position in the gently sloping hills of South Yorkshire, with nearby areas including Lower Bradway and Upper Bradway. Bradway is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential development. Bradway is located about 137.9 miles north of London, in the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
AdBlue drains across Bradway and South Yorkshire
AdBlue call-outs around Bradway are passed to vans that serve the towns near it — Lower Bradway, Upper Bradway as well as Bradway Bank — and much of South Yorkshire further out, across S postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you fits Bradway, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Bradway
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Broadway Bowling Club.
For that reason, each enquiry from Bradway begins by asking the identical trio — what was put in, how much, whether the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Their replies narrow a range right down to a single figure.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
In Bradway and still alongside your car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Bradway or wherever in South Yorkshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.