AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broadeye? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the engine off and keep the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it is pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Broadeye, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Broadeye, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting ST16 2, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Never:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the car.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Even a short stretch down Broad Eye is too far to drive the car.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle off the island if you are on a forecourt in Broadeye, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or elsewhere. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Forebridge last night and not switched on stays the straightforward one, provided nobody touches the key.
Two kinds of damage come from there. 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, so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning around Broadeye leaves things worse. In the tank only, time does nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a separate form of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Broadeye or out in Rowley Park, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Staffordshire the vehicle is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Broadeye
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A bottle picked up when heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside St Austin's Catholic Primary School and Nursery, after the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Doxey Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Lamb Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a company vehicle, or the other car of a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles people know the least. An identical slip, same first step — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Broadeye or the remainder of Staffordshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Broadeye?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, perhaps midway across Broadeye or returning from Victoria Park. When safe, stop and switch it off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M6, under 3 miles from Broadeye, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system. That's why a hop across Broadeye to park near Site of Castle and a drive of under 25 miles for Stoke-on-Trent are such separate jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to clean out once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it is noticed soon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Broadeye
Anywhere it has come to rest around Broadeye — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Broad Eye Windmill — our van comes to the vehicle. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else we ask which fluid got in, about the amount, plus if the motor has turned over.
Next, emptying that tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. After that clean diesel, then a check of the car. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the engine has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. Whether it is a parking bay by Stafford or a drive around Broadeye, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. Before leaving, our engineers confirm it's running properly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Broadeye and where it is
Broadeye is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Staffordshire, with a relatively low elevation of 78 metres. Broadeye lies approximately 15 miles north of Stoke-on-Trent and is close to nearby places such as Stafford, Castletown, and Castlefields. Broadeye has a population of around 3201 people and predominantly consists of flat-type housing. Broadeye is located about 123 miles northwest of London, in the West Midlands region.
Broadeye and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Stafford, Castletown and Castlefields are among the places near Broadeye that the same vans serve, together with most of Staffordshire further out, throughout the ST postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
No towing is needed. In Broadeye, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: your car is drained where it stands, be it on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Broadeye
There is no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Trinity Church Stafford.
With that in mind, every call from Broadeye begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid was put in, how much, if the engine ran — before a quote. Their answers narrow a range right down to a single figure.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. As the van is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Broadeye: still beside the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Broadeye or anywhere in Staffordshire, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.