Broom: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it is pulled through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. In Broom, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Broom: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and we will know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting S60 3, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up Ledsham Road.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Broom, whether it is the JET or somewhere else. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Whiston last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
After it's pulled in, the harm 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, so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. A motor left sitting around Broom with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing through them, and so the water part harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A problem of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Esso Tesco Fuel Station. No harm is done as long as it sits put, blended into your diesel — only once the motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in East Dene or the middle of Broom.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in South Yorkshire the car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Broom?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap — can look the same. No one means it; plenty of layouts invite it. Mostly it's never the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill is rushed outside Herringthorpe Junior School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the children were dropped in. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Broom Lane. Else, after dark by The Stag, the car gets refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
Rented cars, new vehicles, company cars, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles get it most. An identical slip, an identical first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you are in Broom or the remainder of South Yorkshire.
Broom: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It has been sucked through your filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Maybe coming back from Herringthorpe Playing Fields, or midway across Broom, your motor might go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M1, under 3 miles from Broom, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Hopping across Broom to the car park by Swinburne Place Neighbourhood Centre is one thing; heading towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once your engine has been started, and we do all of it where the car has stopped. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Broom
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Broom: a side street close to Raza-E-Mustafa Mosque, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three answers, which we get first — which fluid got in, the quantity, and if the motor has run.
Next, emptying that tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains won't flush out by itself. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, the system is primed with fresh diesel. After that we fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space by Rotherham Central or a driveway in Broom. It is checked on new diesel to confirm it runs properly before we head off. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Broom itself
Broom is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated approximately 6 miles from Sheffield and 141 miles from London, at an elevation of around 94 metres. Broom forms part of the wider Sheffield urban area, with nearby places including Herringthorpe, Moorgate, and Clifton. Broom is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development patterns of the region. Broom has a population of around 5546 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains in Broom and across South Yorkshire
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Broom also cover the spots around it, Herringthorpe, Moorgate and Clifton among them, and most of South Yorkshire beyond, across the S postcode area. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
No moving is needed. In Broom, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: your car is drained where it stands, whether on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
Broom: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each callouts vary, a single price wouldn't be honest. The cost shifts 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 depends on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Herringthorpe United Reformed Church.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Broom opens with the identical trio — what went in, how much, if it ran — before any figure. When those are answered, a range becomes one fixed figure.
The price is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Broom and still next to the car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Broom or anywhere in South Yorkshire.