Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Clun
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens until your engine sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Clun, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Clun
To do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops someone switching the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't throw it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting SY7 8, or whatever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their pump the moment the ignition goes on, so keep the car off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Ford Street.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
The attendants on duty at any Clun filling station — the BP included — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was meant to travel that way.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Llwyn last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
After it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. It attacks certain metals used in fuel components, attacking any part it touches till it is removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked in Clun. Just in your tank, it stays stable. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside the tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Bicton or the middle of Clun.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just in your tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to empty, anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Shropshire.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Clun: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside St George's CofE Academy, Clun. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Hospital Lane. Else, in dim light by The Sun Inn, the car is refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical mistake, same first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Clun or the remainder of Shropshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Clun?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the filter and lines.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Hurst Rough, perhaps, or part way across Clun. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M54, under 50 miles from Clun, by the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Clun to the car park by Methodist Church is one matter; heading towards Hereford, under 50 miles away, is another, because each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Permanent damage is very rare when it's caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Clun?
A road by Trinity Hospital (almshouses), a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Clun, our technicians travel to it. Three replies shape the work, so first our technicians ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, plus whether your engine has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. Residue from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. The fuel 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, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the last step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at Knucklas or on a drive around Clun. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on new diesel. Because the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Clun
Clun is a village situated on the River Clun in south-west Shropshire, with a mix of detached housing and other types of accommodation. Clun sits at an elevation of around 188 metres, near the Welsh border and close to the nearby settlements of Churchbank, Woodside, and Hurst. Clun remains a small, rural community with a population of approximately 654 people, located about 28 miles from the city of Hereford. Clun is also relatively distant from London, at around 139 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Clun and Shropshire
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls in Clun also cover the locations about it, Churchbank, Woodside and Hurst among them, and most of Shropshire beyond, across the SY postcode area. Assuming doesn't help by a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
A mobile service suits Clun, a village: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Clun: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Town Hall (museum).
With that reason, every call from Clun opens with the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, whether it ran — ahead of any quote. When those are known, a range turns into a single fixed number.
You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, dig out your policy: many include misfuelling.
Beside the vehicle around Clun, right now?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Clun or anywhere in Shropshire.