Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Gravelhill
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The trouble starts once it is pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully purged where the vehicle stands in Gravelhill. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Gravelhill: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting SY1 2, or just the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Never:
- Shifting your car even a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Even a short stretch down Berwick Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
Get the attendants to help you move the car away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Gravelhill, whether it's the Local or somewhere else. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the gas. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Shrewsbury overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — but it would be first through if your motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come 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 labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight around Gravelhill makes it worse. In your tank only, waiting does nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Asda and you have a problem of thin fuel. No damage is done as long as it stays unused, blended into your diesel — only once the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether the car is in Porthill or the centre of Gravelhill, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Shropshire the car has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Gravelhill: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A container picked up while driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Hurrying, outside Greenfields Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Round Hill Green. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Bull In The Barne, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet vehicle, or the other car in a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use the least. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same slip, wherever around Gravelhill or the rest of Shropshire you happen to be.
Gravelhill: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
Expect rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Doctor's Field Countryside Site, say, or part way across Gravelhill. When you safely can, pull over and switch it off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
Gravelhill sits under 10 miles from the M54; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Gravelhill to the car park by Shrewsbury Men's Shed is a very different job from a run towards Wrexham, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Gravelhill
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Gravelhill: a side street near Saint George, Frankwell, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies shape the job, so first our engineers ask what got in, about what quantity, and if the engine has run.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't wash out by itself. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Finally, your system is bled with clean diesel. After that our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space by Shrewsbury or a driveway around Gravelhill. Before leaving, our engineers make sure it is running correctly with fresh diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Gravelhill itself
Gravelhill is a locality situated on the riverside in Shropshire, with an elevation of around 50 metres. Gravelhill lies near several other residential areas, including Coton Hill, Frankwell, and Greenfields. Gravelhill is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located approximately 24.8 miles from Wrexham. Gravelhill is also about 139.6 miles from London, making it a relatively rural locality in the West Midlands region.
Gravelhill and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the SY postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Gravelhill reach most of Shropshire as well, Coton Hill, Frankwell and Greenfields included. Assuming doesn't help by a border or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
Gravelhill is a small village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Gravelhill
Because the jobs differ, a single figure would not be honest. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Plymouth Brethren Severn Gospel Hall.
Ahead of any figure, not afterwards, each call from Gravelhill begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, and if it ran. Those answers shrink the range right down to a single number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still alongside your car in Gravelhill?
In that case, do nothing — that is the best move there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Shropshire, Gravelhill too.