AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Chew Magna? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes when your pump begins drawing it. In Chew Magna, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Chew Magna, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Take your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will see.
- Tell us a postcode starting BS40 8, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's pointless.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up South Parade.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the verge.
The staff working at any Chew Magna filling station — the Esso included — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. At home, your car stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and none of it was intended to travel through one.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, which is how a car topped up in Newtown last night and not started remains the simple case, provided nobody turns the key.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it reaches until it is removed from your system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Chew Magna with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is just inside the tank, it doesn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Morrisons, and this issue is diluted fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits put, blended into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Whether the car is in Stanton Drew or the heart of Chew Magna, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Somerset the vehicle is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Chew Magna?
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A bottle picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical story.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Chew Magna Primary School the refill is rushed. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive near Chew Street. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside Bear & Swan, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
Rented vehicles, new vehicles, fleet cars, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least known cars get it the most. Wherever you're around Chew Magna or the rest of Somerset, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Chew Magna, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through your filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may show up, perhaps midway across Chew Magna or coming back from Chew Magna Cricket Club. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M32, under 10 miles from Chew Magna, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Chew Magna to the car park by Old School Room is one thing; driving towards Bristol, under 10 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once the motor has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Long-term damage is very rare if it is spotted soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Chew Magna
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that is a street beside Millennium Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Chew Magna, and our van travels to it. The work depends on three answers, which we ask for first — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether your engine has turned over.
Then your tank is cleared where the car stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is rinsed 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 once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers turn up, provided the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. After that we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay outside Parson Street or a driveway in Chew Magna. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. We do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Chew Magna
Chew Magna is a village situated on the River Chew in Somerset, with a mix of old and new buildings, including many detached houses. Chew Magna lies close to the cities of Bristol and Bath, and its riverside setting gives it a distinctive character. Chew Magna has a population of around 1249 people and is surrounded by other small villages such as Moorledge and Chew Stoke. Chew Magna is located about 6 miles from Bristol and 107 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Chew Magna and Somerset
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Chew Magna also cover the spots round it, Moorledge, Littleton and Chew Stoke among them, and most of Somerset beyond, across the BS postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
A mobile service suits Chew Magna, a village: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Chew Magna: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single figure would be honest, since each job is different. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Chew Magna Baptist Church.
That's why each call from Chew Magna starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. When they are known, a range turns into one fixed figure.
Our quote is given during the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car around Chew Magna, right now?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Chew Magna or anywhere across Somerset.