AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chemistry? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes when the pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Chemistry, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Chemistry
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting SY13 1, or whichever street is closest, and the van reaches you directly — so call wherever you stand.
Do not do these:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Bathfields Crescent.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
On a forecourt in Chemistry, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. At your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its fuel from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Alkington last night and not started stays the simple case, as long as nobody touches your key.
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 working on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. A motor left standing in Chemistry with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Texaco. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the following tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Chemistry or out in Redbrook, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever across Shropshire your vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Chemistry?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody means it; many layouts invite it. Mostly it is not the filling station: a driver buys a container driving home and pours it in outside the house.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Whitchurch CofE Infant and Nursery Academy, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Waterfront View, as the day ends. Else, after dark by Cock and Greyhound, the vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company motor, or the other vehicle in a family with both fuels — the cars drivers know the least. Wherever you're in Chemistry or the remainder of Shropshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Chemistry, and the motor started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and your lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Greenfields Nature Reserve, say, or midway across Chemistry. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of it through.
Chemistry lies under 25 miles from the M6; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Hopping across Chemistry to the car park by Site of Whitchurch Castle is one thing; driving towards Wrexham, under 15 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after your engine has been started. Long-term damage is very rare if it is caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Chemistry?
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Chemistry: a side street near Saint Alkmund, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, so before anything else we ask what went in, about the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Next, draining your tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not wash away by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the last step. At that point we fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Whitchurch (Shropshire) or a drive around Chemistry. We check it runs properly on new diesel before we leave. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Chemistry
Chemistry is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Shropshire, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 2358 residents. Chemistry sits at an elevation of 96 metres, close to nearby places such as Brooklands and Whitchurch. Chemistry is located near Grindley Brook and is approximately 13.4 miles from Wrexham, the nearest city. Chemistry is also around 148.5 miles from London, making it a relatively rural suburb.
AdBlue drains around Chemistry and across Shropshire
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Chemistry also cover the locations round it, Brooklands, Whitchurch and Grindley Brook among them, and most of Shropshire beyond, across the SY postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — we empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Chemistry, a residential suburb, well.
Chemistry: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Creatology.
Ahead of a figure, never after, each enquiry from Chemistry begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Their answers shrink the range down to a single figure.
The quote is given on the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still beside the vehicle around Chemistry?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best move you can do. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Chemistry or wherever within Shropshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.