Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burley
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave your ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The harm begins once it is sucked through the lines — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. In Burley, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Burley: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents anyone switching the electrics on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting LS4 2, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so leave the car off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along St Matthias Street.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
The attendants working at any Burley filling station — the BP included — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. On that drive, your car remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Headingley Hill overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if your motor starts, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a car sitting in Burley. Only in your tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and the issue is thinned fuel. No harm is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, and so watering it can't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Woodhouse or the centre of Burley equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere around West Yorkshire the car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Burley
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts invite it. It mostly takes place outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Burley St Matthias Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Burley Road. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside Dave's Pies and Ales, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, brand-new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Same slip, an identical first response — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around Burley or the rest of West Yorkshire.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Burley, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been sucked through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Burley Park or halfway across Burley. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the A58(M), under 3 miles from Burley, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Burley to park near St Matthias Church and a drive of under 3 miles towards Leeds are such different jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's caught quickly.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Burley: what it takes
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Burley: a side street near BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run: our technicians ask first, because those decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned right through because residue won't flush out unaided. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. You drive off as soon as we have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Burley or in a space by Burley Park. It is checked on clean diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we go. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Burley
Burley is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside near Leeds, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Burley sits at an elevation of around 50 metres, close to the city centre and nearby areas like Armley and Headingley. Burley is part of the larger Leeds urban area, with good transport links to the rest of the country, including London, which is approximately 170 miles away. Burley has a population of around 11,791 people, living in a variety of predominantly terraced homes.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Burley included
Armley, Headingley and Hyde Park are among the places near Burley that the same vans serve, along with much of West Yorkshire further out, over the LS postcode area. Close to a boundary, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
No towing is needed. In Burley, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the car is emptied where it stands, be it on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Burley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, and so no fixed quote is fair. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Vue.
What got in, how much, plus whether it ran: each Burley enquiry begins with exactly those, before any figure, not afterwards. When they are answered, a range becomes one firm figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
In Burley and still alongside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across West Yorkshire, Burley too.