AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Damems? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your motor off and leave your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle stands around Damems. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Damems: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it away.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting BD22 7, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Not to do:
- Shifting your car just a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance up Bracken Bank Avenue.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
At a forecourt around Damems, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Cackleshaw last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. By daybreak, a car parked around Damems with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it's only inside the tank, it doesn't. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the next tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other mistake — in Hermit Hole or the centre of Damems alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around West Yorkshire your vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Damems
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. Nobody intends it. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Worth Valley Primary School. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Damems Lane, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Bracken Arms, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a company motor, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers know least. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Damems or the rest of West Yorkshire you happen to be.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Damems?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through the filter, through the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Goose Cote Lane Recreation Ground or halfway across Damems. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M606, under 10 miles from Damems, by the first junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why a hop across Damems to park beside Sue Belcher Community Centre and a drive of under 10 miles for Bradford are very separate jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has ended up, and once the engine has run there is more of it. When it's caught quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Damems?
Anywhere it has come to rest in Damems — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by St James — our van travels to your vehicle. Three answers decide the job, and so before anything else we ask what went in, roughly what quantity, and whether your engine has turned over.
Then the tank is drained where the car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking space outside Keighley or a drive in Damems, that is where our engineers start the car and you head off. It's tested on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before our engineers go. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Damems, for a moment
Damems is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Yorkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 3012 residents. Damems sits at an elevation of 186 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and nearby places such as Harewood Hill and Bracken Bank. Damems is located approximately 8 miles from Bradford, making it a commuter-friendly location. Damems is also relatively distant from London, at around 178 miles away.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Damems included
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Damems also cover the places round it, Harewood Hill, Bracken Bank and Bogthorn among them, and most of West Yorkshire beyond, across the BD postcode area. Guessing won't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Damems is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Damems: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Exley Head Methodist Church.
Before any figure, never afterwards, each call from Damems opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. Once they are answered, a range becomes a single fixed figure.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Damems: still alongside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether the engine ran is all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across West Yorkshire, Damems included.