Ford: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens till the engine sucks it through. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle stands around Ford. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ford: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting SR4 0, or simply the name of a street close by, and so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way up Fordham Road.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the roadside.
Get the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the island if you are on a forecourt in Ford, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or elsewhere. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Pennywell last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of that tank, untouched — but it would be first through once the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a car sitting around Ford with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's only in the tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside your tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the following tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Ford or out in South Hylton, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside the tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever your vehicle has stopped in Tyne and Wear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Ford: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. The top-up gets rushed outside Highfield Academy, because the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken in. Close to Felsham Square, someone tips a container in on that drive in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light outside Steels Social Club, your vehicle gets refilled by a driver opening that flap the first time.
Rented motors, brand-new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars get it most. Wherever you're around Ford or the remainder of Tyne and Wear, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Ford?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through the filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Hylton Road Playing Fields, or midway across Ford, your motor may go rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. No starting it again to test: stop once safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the A194(M), under 5 miles from Ford, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Hopping across Ford to the car park by Lambton Street Youth Centre is one matter; heading for Sunderland, under 3 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted quickly.
Ford: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Ford: a side street near Bethesda Mission, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the work, so before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly the amount, plus if your motor has turned over.
Next, draining your tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. A test of your car comes last, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Last, your system is primed with new diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside St Peters or a drive around Ford, that is where we start the car and you head off. It's tested on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before our engineers head off. Because the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Ford itself
Ford is a suburban area located on the coast of Tyne and Wear, near the city of Sunderland. Ford sits at an elevation of 56 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Ford is close to nearby places such as Pallion, High Barnes, and Millfield, and is situated approximately 240.8 miles north of London. Ford has a population of around 7633 residents.
AdBlue drains in Ford and across Tyne and Wear
AdBlue jobs around Ford go to teams that cover the places around it — Pallion, High Barnes as well as Millfield — and much of Tyne and Wear further out, throughout SR postcodes. Assuming won't help by a border or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
A van that comes to you suits Ford, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the car to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Ford: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the callouts vary, a single price wouldn't be fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Church of The Good Shepherd.
For that in mind, each call from Ford opens with the identical trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before any figure. Those answers shrink a range right down to a single figure.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In Ford and still alongside the car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best move available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Ford or wherever in Tyne and Wear.