Ebley: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and leave your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Ebley, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has been run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Ebley: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting GL5 4, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so keep it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is wasted.
- Even a short stretch up Bridge Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
Get the attendants to help you move the car away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt around Ebley, whether it's the Esso or somewhere else. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Cashes Green yesterday and never started stays the straightforward case, provided no one touches your key.
After it's pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it reaches until it's removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. A car left standing in Ebley with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Tesco, and the issue is diluted fuel. Mixed into your diesel and left still, it's harmless for now; using your motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Ebley or out in Selsley, costs more than nearly any other slip.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across Gloucestershire the vehicle sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Ebley
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs invite it. Mostly it's not the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Foxmoor Primary School. Near The Grove, someone pours a container in on the drive in the evening. Another version: dim light, the car park by Coach and Horses, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a fleet car, or the spare vehicle of a home with both fuels — the cars people know least. Wherever you're around Ebley or the rest of Gloucestershire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ebley, and the motor started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Stroud Cricket Club, or midway across Ebley, the engine may run lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or stall. No starting it again to check: pull over when safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M5, under 5 miles from Ebley, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system. That's why crossing Ebley to park beside Obelisk and a drive of under 10 miles for Gloucester are such separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it's spotted quickly.
Ebley: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road beside St Matthew, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in Ebley, our engineers come to it. Before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if your engine has been run, because those answers decide the work.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, if the engine hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Ebley or in a bay outside Stonehouse. Before we leave, we confirm it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Ebley
Ebley is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 38 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Ebley lies near the cities of Gloucester and the surrounding areas of Hamwell Leaze, Dudbridge, and Cainscross. Ebley is located approximately 92.6 miles west of London, and its population is around 2707 residents. Ebley has a relatively low elevation, typical of the riverside areas in the region.
AdBlue drains across Ebley and Gloucestershire
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Ebley also cover the locations around it, Hamwell Leaze, Dudbridge and Cainscross among them, and most of Gloucestershire beyond, across the GL postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service fits Ebley, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the car to us, because our engineers empty it there, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Ebley?
Every job differs, and so no fixed quote would be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight spot behind All Saints Church, Selsley.
With that reason, every enquiry from Ebley opens with the same trio — what was put in, how much, whether it ran — ahead of any figure. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Ebley and still alongside the car?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Ebley or anywhere across Gloucestershire.