AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gateacre? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition too. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts till your motor sucks it through. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully purged where the vehicle sits around Gateacre. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do straight away, Gateacre: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so do not bin it away.
- Ring just where you are. Say a L25 3 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts the pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Grange Lane.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any Gateacre filling station — the Morrisons included — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Childwall last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A vehicle left sitting in Gateacre with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the main fault. Mixed into the diesel and left still, it is harmless for now; running the engine is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Woodlands or the middle of Gateacre.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Merseyside the vehicle is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Gateacre: how it ends up there
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. No one intends it. It mostly occurs at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Belle Vale Community Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, just off Halewood Road, as the day ends. Else, in dim light by The Brown Cow, your car is topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the spare motor in a family with one of each fuels — the cars people know least. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Gateacre or the remainder of Merseyside you happen to be.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Gateacre?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Via the filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — into the injection pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — returning from Reynolds Park, say, or midway across Gateacre. When safe, stop then turn it off — without restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Gateacre sits under 3 miles from the M62; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Gateacre to the car park by St. Stephen's Parish Church, Gateacre is a very different job from a run towards Liverpool, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has ended up, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Gateacre
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a road near Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Gateacre, and the van comes to it. The work depends on three replies, which we ask for first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after your tank is drained, on the spot. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians arrive, provided the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the last step. Whether it is a parking bay outside Hunts Cross or a driveway in Gateacre, that is where we fire it up and you head off. It's checked on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Gateacre, for a moment
Gateacre is a suburban area in Merseyside, located approximately 5 miles south of Liverpool city centre. Gateacre sits inland, with an elevation of around 31 metres, and is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Gateacre is situated near other local areas, including Belle Vale, Woolton, and Netherley, and is home to a population of around 6340 residents.
AdBlue drains around Gateacre and across Merseyside
AdBlue jobs in Gateacre are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Belle Vale, Woolton as well as Netherley — and much of Merseyside further out, across L postcodes. Close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
A van that comes to you fits Gateacre, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we empty it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Gateacre
Not one flat figure would be honest, since each job is different. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is easier for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind Our Lady Of The Assumption Roman Catholic Church.
What went in, how much, and whether the engine ran: each Gateacre call begins by asking precisely that, before a figure, never afterwards. With them, the range shrinks to one firm number.
The price is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Gateacre: still beside your car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Gateacre or anywhere across Merseyside.