Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Finger Post
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. In Finger Post, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Finger Post
To do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Call just where you are. Quote a WA9 1 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Don't:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way up Park Road.
- Draining that tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
Rolling your vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Finger Post forecourt you're on, the Ashcroft Service Station or any other. At home, the vehicle remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very spot the pickup draws from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in St Helens overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at some metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches until it's cleared from your system. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow channels. A vehicle left standing in Finger Post with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that's the main fault. Harm just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the next tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Finger Post or out in Peasley Cross, costs more than nearly any other error.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Merseyside the vehicle is standing.
Finger Post: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. No one means it. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Merton Bank Primary School. Near Park Street, someone pours a container in on that drive after work. Otherwise, in dim light outside Queens Arms, the vehicle gets refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a new car, a fleet motor, or the spare car in a home with both fuel types — the cars drivers use the least. Wherever you are in Finger Post or the rest of Merseyside, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Finger Post: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Sutton Brook Greenway or halfway across Finger Post. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M62, under 5 miles from Finger Post, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system. That's why crossing Finger Post to park near Holy Trinity and a drive of under 15 miles for Liverpool are very separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. When it is spotted soon, long-term damage is very unusual.
Finger Post: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car stays where it is, whether that is a road near TK Maxx, a driveway, a layby or a filling station around Finger Post, and our van travels to it. What went in, about how much, plus whether your engine has been run: we ask first, since those decide the job.
Then the tank is emptied where your car stands, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes last. You drive off as soon as we have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Finger Post or in a bay outside St Helens Central. Before we leave, our engineers confirm it's running properly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Finger Post and where it is
Finger Post is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the riverside with an elevation of 32 metres, and is located approximately 11 miles from Liverpool. Finger Post is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing and is close to nearby places such as Parr Stocks, Pocket Nook, and Broad Oak. Finger Post has a population of around 3647 residents and is part of the wider Liverpool urban area. Finger Post is also relatively distant from London, being around 173 miles away.
Finger Post and Merseyside: AdBlue drains across the area
Parr Stocks, Pocket Nook and Broad Oak are among the places around Finger Post that the same teams reach, along with most of Merseyside further out, throughout the WA postcode area. Ring and check rather than guess when you are by a county line, or anywhere awkward to explain.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Finger Post, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Finger Post: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price would be fair, because every job is different. What moves the price is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind The Salvation Army - St Helens.
Ahead of any figure, never afterwards, every call from Finger Post begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. Those answers narrow the range right down to one number.
Before a van heads out, you hear the price by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Alongside your car around Finger Post, right now?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran is all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Merseyside, Finger Post too.