AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fern Bank? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's pulled through your pump — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. In Fern Bank, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Fern Bank: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting SK15 2, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Do not do these:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Fern Bank.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the roadside.
The staff working at any Fern Bank forecourt — the Texaco included — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Spindle Point last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What remains when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning in Fern Bank makes things worse. Inside your tank only, time costs nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left in your tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Brushes or the centre of Fern Bank, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not stay blended, so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere in Greater Manchester your car has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to clear.
Fern Bank: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A container bought when driving home and tipped in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Wild Bank Primary School the top-up is rushed. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Shaw Moor Avenue. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by The Organ, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company vehicle, or the other motor in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers know the least. Wherever in Greater Manchester, Fern Bank included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
Fern Bank: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Cheetham Park or halfway across Fern Bank. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M67, under 3 miles from Fern Bank, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Fern Bank to the car park by Bower Fold is one thing; driving for Manchester, under 10 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. Noticed early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Fern Bank?
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a road beside Saint Paul's Parish Church, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt around Fern Bank, and the van travels to it. Three answers decide the job, and so first we ask which fluid went in, roughly what quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned right through because what remains won't flush out by itself. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of your vehicle. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, your system is primed with fresh diesel. At that point our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Stalybridge or a driveway in Fern Bank. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Fern Bank, briefly
Fern Bank is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside with a mix of terraced housing. Fern Bank has a population of around 4167 people and is located near other local places such as Bower Fold, Copley, and Woodlands. Fern Bank sits at an elevation of 170 metres, approximately 8.4 miles from Manchester city centre. Fern Bank is part of the larger North West region, about 158.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Fern Bank and across Greater Manchester
Bower Fold, Copley and Woodlands are among the places near Fern Bank that the same vans serve, together with most of Greater Manchester beyond, over the SK postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
No moving is needed. In Fern Bank, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: the vehicle is emptied on the spot, whether in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Fern Bank
No flat price would be fair, because every job is different. Three things shift the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Copley Leisure Centre.
Ahead of a quote, never afterwards, every call from Fern Bank begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, and whether it ran. Those replies shrink the range down to a single number.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our price by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Look at your policy while we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still beside the vehicle in Fern Bank?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Fern Bank or anywhere around Greater Manchester.