Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brentry
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts until your engine pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Brentry, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Brentry: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BS10 6, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance up Forest Drive.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The attendants working at any Brentry forecourt — the Andy's Gas among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very spot the intake draws from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Cribbs Causeway overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through once your motor starts, before any diesel at all.
After it's drawn in, the damage takes two forms. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting in Brentry. Only in that tank, it stays stable. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Filton or the middle of Brentry.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever in Bristol the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Brentry
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Brentry Primary School. Near Knole Lane, someone pours a bottle in at home in the evening. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside The Pegasus, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars see it the most — hire cars, new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle of a family with both fuels. Leave it off: that is the first response to the same slip, anywhere around Brentry or the rest of Bristol you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Brentry?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Okebourne Road Open Space, perhaps, or part way across Brentry. When you safely can, stop then switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Brentry sits under 3 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
A quick hop across Brentry to the car park by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one thing; heading towards Bristol, under 5 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has been run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has ended up. Permanent damage is very unusual if it is spotted quickly.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Brentry: what it takes
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a road beside New Brunswick United Reformed Church, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Brentry, and our van comes to it. Three replies shape the job, and so first our engineers ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, and if your motor has turned over.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't wash away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when the motor has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. After that we start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay outside Filton Abbey Wood or a drive in Brentry. Before we leave, our engineers confirm it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Brentry, briefly
Brentry is a suburban area located inland, approximately 4 miles north of Bristol city centre, with an elevation of around 64 metres. Brentry sits near the suburbs of Southmead, Catbrain, and Henbury, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Brentry is home to a population of around 7351 residents, and is situated within the larger Bristol urban area. Brentry is also relatively close to major transport links, being around 106.5 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Brentry and Bristol
Throughout the BS postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Brentry reach most of Bristol too, Southmead, Catbrain and Henbury among them. Ring and ask rather than guess when you're by a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Brentry is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Brentry?
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Saint Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church.
Before any quote, never after, every call from Brentry opens with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and whether it ran. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Next to the vehicle in Brentry, right now?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Brentry or anywhere in Bristol, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran.