Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ettiley Heath
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then keep your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Ettiley Heath. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ettiley Heath: the first few minutes
Do:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call just where you are. Say a CW11 3 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: your motor remains off.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts the pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Elton Road.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move the car away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt around Ettiley Heath, whether it's the Asda or somewhere else. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Sandbach last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it is pulled in, the harm takes two forms. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Ettiley Heath leaves things worse. Inside the tank alone, time does nothing. Then there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Petrol put into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole fault. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Moston Green or the centre of Ettiley Heath equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere around Cheshire the car has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Ettiley Heath
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone buys a bottle heading home and tips it in at home.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The refill is hurried outside Elworth CofE Primary School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A driver pours the bottle in at home, right off Riley Close, as the day ends. One more version: darkness, a pub car park by The Rookery Tavern, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar vehicles see it most — rentals, new ones, fleet cars, and the spare motor of a family with one of each fuel types. Wherever you are in Ettiley Heath or the rest of Cheshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Ettiley Heath: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
Perhaps coming back from Sandbach Golf Club, or midway across Ettiley Heath, the engine may go rough, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or stall. No starting it again to check: stop when safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Ettiley Heath sits under 3 miles from the Congleton Road; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing Ettiley Heath to park beside Sandbach Cricket Club and a drive of under 15 miles towards Stoke-on-Trent are very different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to rinse out once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Ettiley Heath?
Wherever it has stopped around Ettiley Heath — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road beside The Church on Ettiley Heath — our van comes to your vehicle. Three answers shape the job, so first our technicians ask which fluid got in, roughly what quantity, plus if your engine has run.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because residue won't flush out by itself. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, by Sandbach or on a drive around Ettiley Heath. It is checked on new diesel to make sure it runs properly before we go. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Ettiley Heath, for a moment
Ettiley Heath is a village in Cheshire, situated near several lakes and low-lying areas, with an elevation of around 62 metres. Ettiley Heath lies close to the villages of Moston, Elworth, and Wheelock, and is approximately 12 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Ettiley Heath has a population of around 2060 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Ettiley Heath is located in the North West region of England, about 148 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cheshire, Ettiley Heath included
AdBlue call-outs around Ettiley Heath are passed to vans that serve the towns near it — Moston, Elworth as well as Wheelock — and much of Cheshire beyond, across CW postcodes. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
Wherever the vehicle sits — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Ettiley Heath, a village, well.
Ettiley Heath: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No flat figure could be honest, because every job is different. What changes the price is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Sandbach Community Football Centre.
For that reason, each enquiry from Ettiley Heath opens with the identical trio — what went in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Our price is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Ettiley Heath: still next to your car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best step available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Ettiley Heath or wherever within Cheshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.