Copt Heath: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just starts once your pump starts pulling it. In Copt Heath, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Copt Heath: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and we will see.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting B93 9, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Not to do:
- Shifting your car just a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's pointless.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Warwick Road.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
The staff working at any Copt Heath filling station — the Esso included — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A motor filled on a driveway in Eastcote yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when your engine runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
After it is pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; and, because it eats at certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Copt Heath with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's just inside that tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Sainsbury's's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that's the whole fault. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in that tank, it causes nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Knowle Grove or the middle of Copt Heath.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere across West Midlands your car has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Copt Heath
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. Nobody intends it. A container bought while driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Hurrying, outside Knowle Church of England Primary Academy, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Someone pours the container in at home, just off Queen Eleanors Drive, as the day ends. Another version: dim light, the car park outside Toby Carvery, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere around West Midlands, Copt Heath included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Copt Heath?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps part way across Copt Heath or returning from Copt Heath Golf Club. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Copt Heath sits under a mile from the M42; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across Copt Heath to park beside Silhillians Sports Centre and a drive of under 10 miles towards Birmingham are such separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been run. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted quickly.
Copt Heath: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped around Copt Heath — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by Grimshaw Hall — the van travels to the car. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, plus if your engine has turned over.
Right there, the tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. Next, your filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of the car. Engine not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Last, the system is primed with fresh diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Copt Heath or in a bay at Widney Manor. The test before our technicians go is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. At the end, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Copt Heath and where it is
Copt Heath is a village situated on the banks of a river in the West Midlands, with a relatively low elevation of around 125 metres. Copt Heath lies approximately 8.6 miles southwest of Birmingham and about 92.4 miles northwest of London. Copt Heath is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is surrounded by nearby places such as Knowle, Tilehouse Green, and Bentley Heath. Copt Heath has a small population of around 698 residents.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Copt Heath included
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Copt Heath also cover the locations round it, Knowle, Tilehouse Green and Bentley Heath among them, and most of West Midlands beyond, across the B postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking is better than assuming, and so phone.
A van that comes to you suits Copt Heath, a village: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we empty it there, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Copt Heath?
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of your car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight spot behind Downing Hall.
For that reason, every call from Copt Heath begins with the same trio — what was put in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of a quote. Given them, the range narrows to a single firm number.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Beside the car around Copt Heath, right now?
Then, touch nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Copt Heath or anywhere around West Midlands.