AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Gillingstool? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and keep your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts when the pump starts pulling it. In Gillingstool, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Gillingstool
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it away.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a BS35 2 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself starts the pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch down Gillingstool.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle away from the island if you are on a forecourt around Gillingstool, whether it's the Thornbury Motors or elsewhere. On that drive, the vehicle remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very spot the pickup sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in The Hacket last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
After it's sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. 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, and so it keeps working on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning in Gillingstool makes things worse. Inside that tank alone, time does nothing. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger problem?
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Tesco. No damage is done as long as it sits put, blended into your diesel — only once your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it cannot just be run through. Whether the car is in Crossways or the heart of Gillingstool, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside that tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere your car has stopped around Gloucestershire.
Gillingstool: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Gillingstool Primary School. Near Pearce Close, a driver pours a bottle in at home after work. Otherwise, after dark outside The Black Horse, the car is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a fleet car, or the spare motor in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people use the least. Wherever in Gloucestershire, Gillingstool included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Gillingstool?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Via your filter, along the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Oakleaze Green, say, or midway across Gillingstool. Once safe, pull over then turn everything off — with no restarting to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M5, under 3 miles from Gillingstool, at the next junction and stop safely, not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Gillingstool to the car park by Thornbury Baptist is a very different job from a run towards Bristol, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where your car has come to a stop. When it's noticed early, lasting damage is very rare.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Gillingstool: what it takes
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Gillingstool: a side street near Kingdom Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, and if your engine has turned over: our technicians ask first, since those shape the job.
Then the tank is emptied where the car stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the vehicle follows last, once fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. 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 at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space by Pilning or a drive in Gillingstool, that is where our engineers start it and you head off. It's checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before our engineers head off. As the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Gillingstool and where it is
Gillingstool is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and approximately 11 miles from Bristol. Gillingstool has a relatively low elevation of 46 metres and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Gillingstool is close to nearby places such as Thornbury, Sibland, and Morton, and is about 103 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Gillingstool and Gloucestershire
Thornbury, Sibland and Morton are among the towns near Gillingstool that the same vans reach, along with most of Gloucestershire further out, over the BS postcode area. Near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
Wherever your vehicle sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Gillingstool, a residential suburb, well.
Gillingstool: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job is different, and so no single price would be honest. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Turnberrie's.
That is why each call from Gillingstool starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. Once those are known, a range becomes one firm 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. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Gillingstool and still alongside your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Gillingstool or wherever in Gloucestershire.