Browns Lane: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your lines — it will not burn, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Browns Lane, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Browns Lane: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Which product, and about how much volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting B79 8, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the car.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance up Scampton Way.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it on your own.
The attendants working at any Browns Lane filling station — the BP among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. From a separate tank it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its supply from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Gillway last night and not switched on remains the simple case, as long as nobody touches your key.
Two kinds of damage come from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Browns Lane leaves it worse. In that tank only, time costs nothing. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have an issue of thin fuel. Blended through the diesel and left unused, it is no threat for now; running your motor does the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the car is in The Leys or the heart of Browns Lane, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Anywhere across Staffordshire your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Browns Lane: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A container picked up when heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Ashcroft Infants' School. Near Mildenhall, a driver tips a container in on the drive after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Wiggington, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a company motor, or the other car in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers use least. Wherever across Staffordshire, Browns Lane as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Browns Lane: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Through the filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — into the injection pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might appear, perhaps midway across Browns Lane or coming back from Spital Bownling & Tennis Club. Once safe, pull over and turn it off — with no restarting to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M42, under 5 miles from Browns Lane, by the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why crossing Browns Lane to park beside St James and a drive of under 10 miles for Lichfield are very different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to clean out once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. When it is noticed early, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Browns Lane: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest in Browns Lane — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road by St Andrew — the van travels to your vehicle. Which fluid was put in, about the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over: our engineers check before all else, since those shape the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after that tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains won't wash out unaided. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the fuel system is bled with fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside Tamworth or a drive around Browns Lane, that is where our engineers start the engine and you head off. We check it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Browns Lane, for a moment
Browns Lane is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated near the River Trent at an elevation of 82 metres. Browns Lane lies approximately 6 miles from the city of Lichfield and is surrounded by other residential areas such as Borough Park and Perry Crofts. Browns Lane has a population of around 4004 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Browns Lane is also relatively close to the larger West Midlands conurbation, while being far enough from London, which is around 103 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Browns Lane and across Staffordshire
Over the B postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Browns Lane reach most of Staffordshire too, Borough Park, Perry Crofts and Wigginton among them. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A mobile service fits Browns Lane, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the car to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Browns Lane
Since the jobs vary, a single price would not be honest. What shifts the cost is, first of all, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St Francis C of E Leyfields and Coton Green.
Ahead of a figure, never after, each call from Browns Lane begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus whether it ran. Once they are answered, a range becomes a single firm number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
In Browns Lane and still alongside your car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Staffordshire, Browns Lane too.