Crudwell: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The harm starts once it's pulled through your pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Crudwell, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has been run. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Crudwell, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly how much amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and we will know.
- Call right where you are. Say a SN16 9 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's wasted.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance up The Dawneys.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
The staff working at any Crudwell filling station — the Texaco included — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — entirely unlike fuel. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the pickup takes its fuel from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is why a car filled in Eastcourt yesterday and never switched on remains the simple case, provided no one touches your key.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Lines holding AdBlue spell damage overnight for a car parked around Crudwell. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a problem of thin fuel. No damage comes while it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Chelworth or the middle of Crudwell.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever in Wiltshire the car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
Crudwell: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and after dark the two may look identical. No one means it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
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 Crudwell CofE Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off The Street. Otherwise, after dark outside The Wheatsheaf inn, the vehicle gets refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
It takes place most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, same first response — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Crudwell or the remainder of Wiltshire.
Crudwell: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been pulled through the filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Perhaps returning from Stadborough Copse, or part way across Crudwell, the engine might go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or cut out. Once you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — with no restarting to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M4, under 10 miles from Crudwell, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Hopping across Crudwell to the car park by All Saints' Church is one thing; driving for Gloucester, under 25 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very unusual if it's noticed soon.
Crudwell: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Anywhere it has stopped in Crudwell — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside St James — the van travels to your vehicle. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, plus if your engine has turned over: we check first, since those shape the work.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. A full flush matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains won't clear out on its own. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of the car. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Whether it's a parking bay outside Kemble or a driveway around Crudwell, that is where we fire it up and you head off. The test before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Crudwell, for a moment
Crudwell is a small village in north Wiltshire, situated in a rural area near the Gloucestershire border. Crudwell sits at an elevation of around 101 metres, with the village of West Crudwell nearby. Crudwell has a population of approximately 665 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Crudwell is located near other small villages such as Murcott and Chedglow, and is about 17.7 miles from Gloucester.
AdBlue drains across Wiltshire, Crudwell included
AdBlue jobs around Crudwell are passed to teams that cover the towns around it — West Crudwell, Murcott plus Chedglow — and much of Wiltshire beyond, across SN postcodes. Assuming won't help by a county line or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Anywhere your car stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it there, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Crudwell, a rural village, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Crudwell
Each job differs, so not one single quote would be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Holy Cross.
What went in, how much, plus whether it ran: every Crudwell enquiry opens with precisely that, before any figure, not afterwards. Once they are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car around Crudwell, still?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Crudwell or wherever in Wiltshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.