AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Clough Hall? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Clough Hall. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Clough Hall
Do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so don't throw it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting ST7 1, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't thin it.
- Even a short stretch up Clough Hall Road is too far to drive the car.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you roll your car off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Clough Hall, whether it's the Tesco or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup draws its supply from. A motor filled on a drive in Dove Bank overnight and left unstarted counts as the simple case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. A car left standing around Clough Hall with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate form of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole problem. Blended into your diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless at that stage; using the motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. Whether your car sits in Hardings Wood or the centre of Clough Hall, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits only in the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, wherever your car has stopped across Staffordshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Clough Hall
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly occurs at home, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside St John the Evangelist Catholic Primary. Someone pours the container in at home, right off Fourth Avenue, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside Clough Hall Hotel.
It happens most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical mistake, an identical first response — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around Clough Hall or the rest of Staffordshire.
Clough Hall: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any might appear, maybe part way across Clough Hall or returning from Clough Hall Park. Stop when safe. Turn off. Keep it off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the M6, under 5 miles from Clough Hall, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Clough Hall to the car park by Kidsgrove Sports Centre is a very different job from a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's caught early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Clough Hall: what it takes
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Clough Hall: a side street near Kidsgrove Pentecostal Church Revival Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has been run: we ask first, because those decide the job.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. What remains from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. A test of your vehicle follows at the end, once clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets flushed or, where needed, replaced. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Clough Hall or in a space by Kidsgrove. It's tested on fresh diesel to make sure it runs correctly before we head off. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Clough Hall, briefly
Clough Hall is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Staffordshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 4585 residents. Clough Hall lies close to the nearby settlements of Woodshutts, Kidsgrove, and Hollins, and is approximately 5.2 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Clough Hall is characterised by its relatively low elevation of 143 metres above sea level. Clough Hall is also located at a distance of around 140.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Clough Hall and Staffordshire
The teams that answer AdBlue calls in Clough Hall also cover the spots about it, Woodshutts, Kidsgrove and Hollins among them, and most of Staffordshire beyond, across the ST postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A van that comes to you suits Clough Hall, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, because we drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
Clough Hall: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Kidsgrove St Thomas.
Before any figure, never afterwards, each call from Clough Hall opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, and whether the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside your car around Clough Hall?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Clough Hall or anywhere in Staffordshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.