Castle Hill: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your engine off and keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes when your pump starts drawing it. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle stands in Castle Hill. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Castle Hill, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting WV16 4, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Don't do these:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts the pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Even a short distance along Underhill Street is too far to drive the car.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
The staff working at any Castle Hill forecourt — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On that drive, the vehicle remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a separate reservoir it is fed directly to your exhaust, treating what your motor emits. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its supply from. A motor filled on a drive in Knowle Sands overnight and left unstarted counts as the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine runs, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny passages; and, since it eats at some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. A motor left standing around Castle Hill with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a second form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether your vehicle is in The Grove or the heart of Castle Hill, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Shropshire the car is standing.
Castle Hill: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St. Mary's Bluecoat Church of England Primary School the top-up is rushed. Near King's Loade, a driver tips a container in at home in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Railwayman's Arms, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, wherever in Castle Hill or the rest of Shropshire you happen to be.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Castle Hill?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and lines.
Maybe returning from underhillstreet park, or midway across Castle Hill, your motor may go lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or stall. When safe, pull over and switch everything off — without restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
Castle Hill lies under 10 miles from the M54; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so heading for Wolverhampton, under 15 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Castle Hill to the car park by St Mary Magdalene's Church. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been run. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it's caught soon.
Castle Hill: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Castle Hill: a side street close to Bridgnorth Castle, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, and our engineers get first — what went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers arrive, if your engine has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking space at Cosford or a drive in Castle Hill, that is where we fire it up and you head off. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Castle Hill, for a moment
Castle Hill is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 45 metres. Castle Hill lies near the town of Bridgnorth, with its neighbouring areas including Low Town and High Town. Castle Hill is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the typical architectural style of many English suburban areas. Castle Hill is located approximately 12.7 miles from Wolverhampton and 120.4 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Castle Hill and Shropshire
Over the WV postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Castle Hill reach much of Shropshire as well, Low Town, Bridgnorth and High Town among them. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No towing is needed. In Castle Hill, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Castle Hill?
Since the callouts vary, a flat figure would not be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open drive is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Lavington's Hole.
Ahead of any figure, never afterwards, every enquiry from Castle Hill begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. Given them, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the price by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Still beside the vehicle around Castle Hill?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Castle Hill or wherever in Shropshire.