AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Cliff Vale? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; damage just comes when your pump begins drawing it. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully rinsed where the vehicle sits in Cliff Vale. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Cliff Vale, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so do not bin it out.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting ST4 7, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Do not:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Shelton New Road.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
At a forecourt in Cliff Vale, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. At your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Stoke-upon-Trent last night and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. 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 Cliff Vale with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the whole fault. Blended into the diesel and left unused, it is harmless for now; running your motor does the harm.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the following tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Cliff Vale or out in Basford, does more harm than almost any other slip.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere around Staffordshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Cliff Vale: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts allow it. A bottle bought while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Near Garner Street, someone tips a container in at home after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Jolly Potters.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — rentals, new cars, company ones, and the other motor in a family with both fuels. Wherever you are around Cliff Vale or the remainder of Staffordshire, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Cliff Vale?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Through the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps midway across Cliff Vale or coming back from Hartshill Park. No restarting to check: stop when it is safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M6, under 3 miles from Cliff Vale, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Mileage matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so driving towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 3 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Cliff Vale to the car park by Etruria Industrial Museum. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Noticed quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Cliff Vale: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Cliff Vale — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Holy Trinity Church — our van travels to the car. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the motor has run, because those answers decide the work.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Priming the system with clean diesel comes last. You head off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Cliff Vale or in a bay at Stoke-On-Trent. Our technicians confirm it runs properly on clean diesel before we go. Because the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Cliff Vale
Cliff Vale is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, with a riverside setting that offers scenic views. Cliff Vale sits at an elevation of around 115 metres, close to nearby places such as Hartshill, Etruria, and Shelton. Cliff Vale has a population of approximately 3988 residents, who predominantly live in semi-detached housing. Cliff Vale is located about 1.1 miles from Stoke-on-Trent city centre, making it a convenient residential area.
AdBlue drains in Cliff Vale and across Staffordshire
Hartshill, Etruria and Shelton are among the places around Cliff Vale that the same teams serve, along with much of Staffordshire beyond, throughout the ST postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you're close to a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
No moving is needed. In Cliff Vale, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: your car is emptied on the spot, be it in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Cliff Vale: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts differ, a flat figure would not be fair. What moves the cost is, first of all, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind James Brindley Memorial.
That is why every call from Cliff Vale starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed number.
The price is given on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Cliff Vale and still next to the car?
In that case, do nothing — that is the best step there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Cliff Vale or wherever in Staffordshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.