AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Crowhill? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only starts when your pump begins drawing it. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits in Crowhill. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Crowhill: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Ring right where you are. Say a OL7 9 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: your motor stays off.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Even a short way along Knowle Avenue is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car off the island if you are at a forecourt around Crowhill, whether it is the Sainsbury's or elsewhere. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine lets out. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the very spot the pickup sucks from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Limehurst overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it reaches until it's cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow channels. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around Crowhill with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it's just inside your tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the BP. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the following tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Crowhill or out in Littlemoss, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere across Greater Manchester the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Crowhill
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Holy Trinity CofE Primary School the top-up is rushed. Someone tips the bottle in at home, just off Windermere Crescent, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Waterloo and Taunton Conservative Club, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere in Crowhill or the rest of Greater Manchester you happen to be.
Crowhill: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from West End Park, or midway across Crowhill, the engine might go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M60, under a mile from Crowhill, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system. That is why a hop across Crowhill to park near Marks & Spencer and a drive of under 10 miles towards Manchester are very separate jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Noticed early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Crowhill
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a street beside Richmond Street Community Centre, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Crowhill, and the van comes to it. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else we ask what went in, about the amount, plus whether your motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after your tank is drained, on the spot. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians get there, if your engine has not run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed the system on new diesel. At that point our engineers start it and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Ashton-Under-Lyne or a driveway around Crowhill. Before we leave, our technicians confirm it is running properly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Crowhill, for a moment
Crowhill is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated approximately 5.7 miles from Manchester city centre. Crowhill sits at an elevation of 108 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Crowhill is located inland, with nearby places including Waterloo and Ashton-under-Lyne, and is around 160.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Crowhill included
AdBlue call-outs around Crowhill go to teams that cover the towns near it — Waterloo, Taunton as well as Ashton-under-Lyne — and most of Greater Manchester beyond, across OL postcodes. Close to a boundary, or somewhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
No towing is needed. In Crowhill, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, be it on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Crowhill
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Ashton Cricket Club.
Before a quote, never afterwards, every call from Crowhill opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, and if the engine ran. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Crowhill: still alongside your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Crowhill or anywhere within Greater Manchester, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.