Edgeley: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage just comes when the pump begins drawing it. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully cleaned where the vehicle stands in Edgeley. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Edgeley, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting SK3 9, or whichever street is nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so call wherever you are.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: the motor stays off.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Carmichael Street.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
The attendants on duty at any Edgeley forecourt — the Morrisons among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a dedicated reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very place the pickup draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Cale Green last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; and, because it attacks some metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it remains in there. A car left sitting around Edgeley with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Esso, and this problem is thinned fuel. No damage is done while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the following fill won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Edgeley or out in Cheadle Heath, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere in Greater Manchester the car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Edgeley: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Alexandra Park Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Someone pours the container in at home, just off Greenhill Street, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark by The Alexandra, the car is topped up by someone using that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical mistake, same first response — leave it off — wherever you happen to be in Edgeley or the rest of Greater Manchester.
Edgeley: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Alexandra Park, say, or midway across Edgeley. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M60, under a mile from Edgeley, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Edgeley to park near Edgeley Library and a drive of under 10 miles towards Manchester are such different jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. If it's caught early, permanent damage is very unusual.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Edgeley: what it takes
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that is a street near St. Matthews, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt around Edgeley, and the van comes to it. Three answers decide the work, so before anything else we ask what got in, about what quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
Next, draining your tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. A test of your car follows last, after clean diesel goes in and your filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, replaced. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Priming the system with new diesel comes at the end. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Edgeley or in a bay outside Stockport. It's checked on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our engineers go. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Edgeley itself
Edgeley is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the lakeside and approximately 72 metres above sea level. Edgeley lies about 6 miles from Manchester city centre and is close to nearby places such as Shaw Heath, Adswood, and Stockport. Edgeley has a population of around 9218 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing.
AdBlue drains across Edgeley and Greater Manchester
AdBlue call-outs in Edgeley are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Shaw Heath, Adswood as well as Stockport — and much of Greater Manchester further out, throughout SK postcodes. Ring and check rather than guess when you are close to a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Wherever the vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Edgeley, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Edgeley: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so no fixed price is honest. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind The Grange Club.
That is why each call from Edgeley starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Their replies narrow the range down to one figure.
The quote is given on the call, before anyone leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Edgeley: still alongside the car?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Edgeley or anywhere in Greater Manchester, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.