Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bromsgrove
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once the pump starts drawing it. In Bromsgrove, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bromsgrove
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so do not throw it out.
- Give us a postcode starting B60 2, or whatever street is closest, and the van finds you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance along Windsor Street.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
On a forecourt in Bromsgrove, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car clear of the petrol pump. At home, your car remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a drive in Slideslow overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches till it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle sitting in Bromsgrove. Only in the tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Morrisons. Blended into the diesel and left still, it's no threat at that stage; using the motor does the damage.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the vehicle is in Charford or the centre of Bromsgrove, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits just inside your tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Worcestershire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Bromsgrove
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container bought while driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Meadows First School. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive near Windsor Gardens. Another version: dim light, the car park outside The Red Lion, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types — the cars people know least. An identical slip, an identical first response — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be in Bromsgrove or the remainder of Worcestershire.
Bromsgrove: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Sanders Park, perhaps, or part way across Bromsgrove. No restarting to check: pull over once safe, then switch everything off. Every start pulls more of it through.
Bromsgrove lies under 3 miles from the M5; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
Hopping across Bromsgrove to the car park by A. E. Housman is one thing; driving towards Birmingham, under 15 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been run. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Bromsgrove: what it takes
A road by Bromsgrove Methodist Church, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever the vehicle has stopped in Bromsgrove, our technicians travel to it. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else we ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, plus if the motor has run.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of the vehicle. If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking space at the nearest station or a drive around Bromsgrove, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. Before we go, we make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove is a town in north-east Worcestershire, situated on the River Bromsgrove, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential areas. Bromsgrove sits at an elevation of around 93 metres, near the Lickey Hills and close to the M5 and M42 motorways. Bromsgrove is located near several smaller communities, including Stoney Hill, Sidemoor, and Red Cross, and is within commuting distance of Birmingham. Bromsgrove has a population of approximately 23,488 people, with easy access to the wider West Midlands region.
Bromsgrove and Worcestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Bromsgrove also cover the places round it, Stoney Hill, Sidemoor and Red Cross among them, and most of Worcestershire beyond, across the B postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are by a county line, or somewhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service suits Bromsgrove, a riverside town: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, because we drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Bromsgrove: the cost of fixing it
Because the jobs vary, a flat figure would not be fair. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Bromsgrove Baptist Church.
Which fluid went in, how much, plus whether the engine ran: each Bromsgrove enquiry opens by asking exactly that, before any quote, not afterwards. Once they are answered, a range turns into one firm figure.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Alongside your car around Bromsgrove, right now?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran is everything our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Worcestershire, Bromsgrove too.