AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Brimscombe? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and your ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Brimscombe, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has run. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Brimscombe: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops someone switching the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting GL5 2, or just the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so keep it off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Even a short stretch up London Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Moving the car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Brimscombe forecourt you are on, the BP or any other. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was meant to go through one.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Burleigh last night and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — but it will be first through once your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it is drawn in, the damage takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car parked in Brimscombe. Just inside the 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.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Murco and you have a fault of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion stay after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Knave-in-hole or the centre of Brimscombe equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere the car has stopped around Gloucestershire.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Brimscombe: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Brimscombe Church of England (VA) Primary School the refill is rushed. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Brimscombe Lane. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Ship Inn.
It occurs most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Brimscombe or the rest of Gloucestershire you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Brimscombe?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through your filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Perhaps returning from Thrupp Park, or midway across Brimscombe, the engine may go rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or stall. When you safely can, pull over then turn it off — without turning it on again to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M5, under 10 miles from Brimscombe, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so heading for Gloucester, under 15 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Brimscombe to the car park by Holy Trinity. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Brimscombe?
The car stays put, whether that's a street near St Mary of the Angels, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Brimscombe, and our van comes to it. Three answers decide the work, so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid was put in, about the amount, and whether your engine has run.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, if your engine hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. You head off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Brimscombe or in a bay outside Stroud. The test before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Brimscombe and where it is
Brimscombe is a village situated on the banks of the River Frome in Gloucestershire, with a mix of old and new buildings, including many detached homes. Brimscombe sits at an elevation of 61 metres, near the villages of Far Thrupp and Quarhouse, and is close to the settlement of Bownham. Brimscombe has a population of around 701 people and is located near the city of Gloucester, which is 10.2 miles away. Brimscombe is also within commuting distance of London, being approximately 89.8 miles west of the capital.
Brimscombe and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Far Thrupp, Quarhouse and Bownham are among the places around Brimscombe that the same teams reach, along with most of Gloucestershire beyond, over the GL postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
No towing is needed. In Brimscombe, a village, a mobile service fits: your car is drained where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Brimscombe
Every job differs, so not one single quote is honest. Three things move the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind Minchinhampton Community Library.
Which fluid got in, how much, and if the engine ran: every Brimscombe enquiry begins with exactly that, ahead of any figure, never afterwards. Once those are answered, a range turns into one firm number.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Still beside the car in Brimscombe?
Then, touch nothing — that is the best move available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Brimscombe or anywhere in Gloucestershire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.