Fold Head: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Fold Head, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Fold Head, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Which product, and roughly what amount? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Tell us a postcode starting OL12 8, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Don't switch your 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.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short distance down Ainsdale Drive.
- Draining your tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
The staff working at any Fold Head forecourt — the Texaco among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Nar last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it's flushed out. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a car sitting around Fold Head. Only inside that tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol at the Esso. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Fold Head or out in Facit, costs more than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Lancashire your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Fold Head?
Many motors put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. Nobody intends it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside St Bartholomew's Church of England Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. Close to Lobden Crescent, a driver pours a bottle in at home after work. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Red Lion, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
Hired cars, brand-new cars, company vehicles, or the second vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. An identical slip, an identical first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around Fold Head or the remainder of Lancashire.
Fold Head: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Lobden Golf Club, perhaps, or part way across Fold Head. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Fold Head sits under 5 miles from the A627(M); if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
A quick hop across Fold Head to the car park by St Bartholomew is one thing; heading towards Manchester, under 15 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the motor has been run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has stopped. When it's noticed quickly, permanent damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Fold Head?
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Fold Head: a side street close to The Ashcroft, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job depends on three replies, which we ask for before all else — which fluid got in, the amount, and if the motor has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking space at Smithy Bridge or a drive around Fold Head, that is where our technicians start it and you drive off. The test before our engineers go is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Fold Head and where it is
Fold Head is a locality situated on the riverside in Lancashire, with an elevation of 234 metres and a mix of terraced housing. Fold Head lies near several small communities, including Wallbank, Whitworth, and Broadley Fold, and is approximately 12 miles from Manchester. Fold Head has a population of around 1701 residents and is located in the North West region of England, about 171 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Fold Head and across Lancashire
Throughout the OL postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Fold Head serve most of Lancashire too, Wallbank, Whitworth and Broadley Fold included. Ring and check rather than guess if you're close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
No moving is needed. In Fold Head, a small village, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, whether in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Fold Head: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so no fixed quote is honest. What shifts the cost is, firstly, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that 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 Christ Church.
That's why each call from Fold Head starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Once they are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still alongside your car in Fold Head?
Then, touch nothing — that is the best move available. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran are everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Lancashire, Fold Head included.