Burntwood: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. In Burntwood, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Burntwood, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will know.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting WS7 1, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the car: your engine stays off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so keep it off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short way up Cannock Road.
- Emptying that tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
On a forecourt in Burntwood, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate tank it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what your motor emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Hammerwich last night and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through if your engine runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it does 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 labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A vehicle left standing around Burntwood with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the main fault. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the next fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Burntwood or out in Creswell Green, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever around Staffordshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Burntwood: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — may appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs allow it. Usually it is not the forecourt: someone buys a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside Highfields Primary Academy, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills your car. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Chase Road. Else, in dim light by White Swan, your car gets refilled by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle of a home with both fuels. Wherever in Staffordshire, Burntwood as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Burntwood: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Perhaps returning from Burntwood Park, or midway across Burntwood, the engine might go rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M6 Toll, under 3 miles from Burntwood, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across Burntwood to park beside Burntwood Methodist Church and a drive of under 5 miles towards Lichfield are very separate jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. When it's spotted quickly, permanent damage is very rare.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Burntwood
A street by Christ Church, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Burntwood, our technicians travel to it. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly what quantity, and if your motor has run.
Then your tank is cleared where the vehicle waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue won't wash away on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, at Lichfield City or on a driveway around Burntwood. Before we go, our engineers make sure it's running properly with fresh diesel in. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Burntwood, briefly
Burntwood is a town in southern Staffordshire, situated near the city of Lichfield and approximately 110 miles northwest of London. Burntwood sits at an elevation of around 139 metres, characterised by its semi-detached housing stock and suburban layout. Burntwood is surrounded by smaller settlements, including Burntwood Green and Boney Hay, and is close to the countryside of the West Midlands region.
Burntwood and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls around Burntwood also cover the locations around it, Burntwood Green, Gorstey Ley and Boney Hay among them, and most of Staffordshire beyond, across the WS postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Burntwood is a town, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Burntwood: the cost of fixing it
Because the callouts vary, a single figure would not be honest. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Hammerwich House.
Before any quote, never after, every call from Burntwood begins with three checks: the liquid, the amount, and whether the engine ran. Their replies narrow the range right down to a single figure.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. While our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Burntwood and still beside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Burntwood or anywhere within Staffordshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.