Fairmead: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The harm starts once it is sucked through your pump — it will not burn, and it won't blend with diesel. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Fairmead. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Fairmead: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so don't throw it out.
- Call just where you are. Say a GL11 5 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Shifting the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up St Bartholomews Close.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
Moving your car off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Fairmead forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its supply 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 Norman Hill 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 pulled it in.
After it is pulled in, the harm takes two forms. It eats at some metals used in fuel components, working on any part it reaches until it is cleared from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny passages. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in Fairmead makes things worse. In the tank alone, waiting does nothing. Then there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the Texaco. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and left in the tank, it causes nothing.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Woodfield or the centre of Fairmead equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever in Gloucestershire the car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Fairmead?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles waits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside Cam Woodfield Infant School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. Close to High Furlong, someone pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light by Berkeley Arms, your car is refilled by someone using that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet motor, or the other motor in a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. Wherever in Gloucestershire, Fairmead included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Fairmead, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Through the filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
Maybe returning from Rackfields Nature Reserve, or part way across Fairmead, the engine may run rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or cut out. No restarting to test: stop once safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M5, under a mile from Fairmead, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system. That's why a hop across Fairmead to park near St Bartholomews Church and a drive of under 15 miles towards Gloucester are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it's caught quickly.
Fairmead: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A street by Lower Cam War Memorial, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever the car has stopped around Fairmead, our technicians come to it. What was put in, roughly how much, plus whether the motor has turned over: we check before all else, since those decide the job.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't wash away by itself. A test of the car follows last, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is cleaned or, where needed, swapped. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. After that our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay by Cam & Dursley or a driveway in Fairmead. Before leaving, we confirm it is running correctly with clean diesel in. Since the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Fairmead and where it is
Fairmead is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 4516 residents. Fairmead sits at an elevation of 63 metres, near the communities of Lower Cam, Summerhayes, and Cam. Fairmead is located approximately 12.5 miles from Gloucester and 97 miles from London, placing it in a commuter belt with access to larger cities. Fairmead's riverside setting provides a distinctive character to the area.
Fairmead and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Fairmead also cover the places round it, Lower Cam, Summerhayes and Cam among them, and most of Gloucestershire beyond, across the GL postcode area. Near a boundary, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
A mobile service fits Fairmead, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Fairmead: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price would be fair, since every job is different. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Arthur S Winterbotham Memorial Hall.
That's why every call from Fairmead starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still beside the vehicle in Fairmead?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Gloucestershire, Fairmead included.