Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cowley
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts till the engine sucks it round. In Cowley, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Cowley: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the amount, so don't throw it away.
- Call right where you are. Say a OX4 2 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run the pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch along Horspath Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
At a forecourt around Cowley, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car clear of the petrol pump. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same place the pickup sucks from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Shotover Hill last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
After it's pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. A motor left sitting in Cowley with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a separate kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Tesco, and this issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Blackbird Leys or the heart of Cowley, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Oxfordshire the car has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
Cowley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under one flap — may appear the same. Nobody means it; many layouts allow it. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Francis Church of England Primary School the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Eastern By-pass Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park at Prince of Wales, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Hired cars, new vehicles, company cars, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. Same mistake, an identical first response — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Cowley or the rest of Oxfordshire.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cowley?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Normandy Crescent Recreation Ground, say, or part way across Cowley. When you safely can, stop then turn it off — without restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Cowley lies under 5 miles from the Wheatley Spur; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so driving for Oxford, under 3 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Cowley to the car park by Horspath Athletics and Sports Ground. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once the motor has been run, and we do all of it where the car has come to a stop. If it is spotted quickly, lasting damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Cowley?
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Cowley: a side street near Cowley Barracks, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if the engine has run, because those answers determine the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after that tank is drained, on the spot. A full flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains will not clear away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, by Oxford or on a driveway around Cowley. It is tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians go. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Cowley, briefly
Cowley is a suburban area located near Oxford in Oxfordshire, sitting at an elevation of 84 metres in the inland setting of the South East region. Cowley is situated approximately 2.8 miles from Oxford and 48.6 miles from London, with nearby places including Temple Cowley, Horspath, and Florence Park. Cowley has a population of around 5679 residents and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Cowley included
Over the OX postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Cowley serve most of Oxfordshire as well, Temple Cowley, Horspath and Florence Park included. Guessing won't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
Cowley is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Cowley
Because each callouts differ, a single figure would not be fair. What changes the price is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind David Lloyd Sports Centre.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Cowley opens by asking the same trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before a figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still next to the vehicle around Cowley?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran are all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Oxfordshire, Cowley too.