Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Knowley
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only starts when the pump starts drawing it. In Great Knowley, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Great Knowley: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting PR6 8, or whatever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: the engine stays off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's pointless.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along Carleton Road.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it on your own.
Moving the vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Great Knowley forecourt you are on, the BP or any other. On the drive, the car stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Johnsons Hillock last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Once it is sucked in, the damage takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A vehicle left sitting around Great Knowley with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate form of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the main fault. No damage is done as long as it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back out of your diesel, so watering it won't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Heapey or the heart of Great Knowley alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across Lancashire the car has stopped.
Great Knowley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside St Chad's Catholic Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up your car. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Blackburn Road. Or someone new to that flap refills the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside Malthouse Farm.
It happens most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are in Great Knowley or the remainder of Lancashire, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Great Knowley?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Through the filter, along the lines, and — given any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Temple Wood, say, or midway across Great Knowley. No starting it again to test: stop once it is safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Great Knowley lies under a mile from the M61; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system. That is why a hop across Great Knowley to park near David Lloyd Clubs and a drive of under 10 miles towards Preston are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to flush once the motor has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it's caught quickly.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Great Knowley: what it takes
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that is a road beside Chorley Sea Cadets, a drive, a layby or a forecourt around Great Knowley, and the van comes to it. The job depends on three answers, which our technicians ask for first — which fluid went in, the amount, and if the motor has run.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned right through since what remains won't wash away unaided. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a test of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians turn up, provided the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes last. Then our technicians start the car and you head off, whether from a parking bay by Chorley or a driveway in Great Knowley. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Great Knowley and where it is
Great Knowley is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with a mix of housing types, predominantly detached homes. Great Knowley sits at an elevation of 115 metres, approximately 7 miles from Preston, and is near other local places such as Little Knowley and Knowley. Great Knowley has a population of around 1362 residents, living in a relatively quiet area with some scenic views. Great Knowley is also located about 182 miles northwest of London, in the North West region of England.
AdBlue drains in Great Knowley and across Lancashire
AdBlue jobs in Great Knowley are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Little Knowley, Knowley as well as Hartwood — and much of Lancashire beyond, throughout PR postcodes. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
Great Knowley is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Great Knowley: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put 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 space behind Preston and Chorley Stake Centre.
That's why each call from Great Knowley starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Their replies narrow a range down to one figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. As the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Still beside the car around Great Knowley?
Not touching your car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Lancashire, Great Knowley too.