AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Canklow? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Canklow, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has been run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Canklow: the first few minutes
Do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting S60 2, or whatever street is closest, and the van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- Shifting the car just a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance along Canklow Road.
- Draining that tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
The attendants working at any Canklow filling station — the Murco among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the intake sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Rotherham last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Canklow leaves things worse. In that tank only, time costs nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a second form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have an issue of thin fuel. Blended through the diesel and sitting still, it is harmless for now; running your engine does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not 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 nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Broom or the middle of Canklow.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Anywhere around South Yorkshire your car has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still inside the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Canklow?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap — may look the same. No one means it; plenty of layouts invite it. Usually it's never the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Canklow Woods Primary School. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Centenary Way, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Phoenix Pavilion, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a fleet vehicle, or the spare motor in a home with one of each fuel types — the cars people know the least. Wherever in South Yorkshire, Canklow as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
Canklow: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Perhaps returning from Boston Park, or part way across Canklow, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or stall. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M1, under 3 miles from Canklow, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so heading towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Canklow to the car park by Jesus College Rotherham Doorway. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Canklow: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car stays where it is, whether that is a road beside War Memorial, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt around Canklow, and the van comes to it. Which fluid was put in, about the quantity, and whether the engine has been run: our engineers check first, because those decide the work.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains will not wash away by itself. Testing the car comes last, once clean diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, where necessary, swapped. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. You drive off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Canklow or in a bay by Rotherham Central. Before we leave, we check it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. As the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Canklow, briefly
Canklow is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 31 metres, approximately 5 miles from Sheffield. Canklow is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is located near other local places such as Ickles and Brinsworth. Canklow has a population of around 2052 residents and is part of the wider Sheffield urban area. Canklow is also relatively close to other nearby places like New York, a small village in the region.
Canklow and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Ickles, Brinsworth and New York are among the towns near Canklow that the same vans serve, along with much of South Yorkshire beyond, over the S postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
A mobile service suits Canklow, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Canklow?
Because the jobs differ, a flat figure wouldn't be fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St. George's Church.
For that reason, each call from Canklow opens with the same trio — what got in, how much, if it ran — ahead of a figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle around Canklow, still?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Canklow or anywhere within South Yorkshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.