Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Colton
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your pump — it will not burn, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Colton, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the engine has been run. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Colton: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Pull the keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting LS15 9, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: your engine remains off.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way along Darnley Lane.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
Moving your car off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Colton forecourt you are on, the Sainsbury's or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. From a dedicated tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Colton Common last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. It eats at some metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it touches till it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Colton with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's just in the tank, nothing changes. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the BP, and this issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in that tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, and so watering it can't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Brown Moor or the centre of Colton alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around West Yorkshire the vehicle is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Colton
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it is never the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Colton Primary School the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Kirkfield Gardens. Otherwise, after dark outside Brown Cow, your vehicle is refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
Hired motors, brand-new motors, company vehicles, or the second vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Leave it off: that's the first response to the same mistake, anywhere around Colton or the remainder of West Yorkshire you are.
Colton: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It has been pulled through your filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, perhaps part way across Colton or coming back from MillenniumWood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M1, under a mile from Colton, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Hopping across Colton to the car park by Colton Methodist Church is one thing; heading for Leeds, under 5 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it's spotted soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Colton
Wherever it has come to rest in Colton — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Colton Village Institute — the van comes to the vehicle. The job depends on three replies, which we get first — which fluid got in, the quantity, and if your motor has run.
Next, emptying the tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not flush out by itself. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the motor has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space outside Cross Gates or a drive around Colton, that is where our engineers start the engine and you head off. Before we leave, our technicians confirm it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Colton and where it is
Colton is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 83 metres, approximately 4.4 miles from Leeds. Colton has a population of around 5005 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Colton is located near other local places such as Whitkirk, Whitkirk Lane End, and Austhorpe, and is some 167.3 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Colton and West Yorkshire
Over the LS postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs in Colton reach most of West Yorkshire as well, Whitkirk, Whitkirk Lane End and Austhorpe included. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Colton, a residential suburb, well.
Colton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the jobs vary, a single price wouldn't be fair. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind St Mary's Church, Whitkirk.
Before any figure, never after, every call from Colton begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, and if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our price on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Colton: still alongside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran is all we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across West Yorkshire, Colton too.