AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Greenhill? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts once the pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Greenhill, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Greenhill: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting LE67 4, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you stand.
Never:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Longcliff Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the pumps if you are at a forecourt in Greenhill, whether it is the Shell or elsewhere. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine lets out. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — quite different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, which is why a car topped up in Hugglescote yesterday and never switched on remains the simple one, provided no one touches your key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at some metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches until it is removed from your system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. Pipes holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle sitting around Greenhill. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Harvest Energy and you have a fault of thin fuel. Blended into your diesel and sitting still, it's no threat for now; using the motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Whitwick or the heart of Greenhill alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Leicestershire the vehicle is standing.
Greenhill: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two may appear the same. No one means it. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver picks up a container heading home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside Broom Leys School, because your dash flashed with a warning while the children were dropped in. Someone tips the bottle in at home, right off Charnborough Road, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by The Birch Tree.
The least known vehicles get it most — hire cars, new ones, fleet ones, and the other car of a home with both fuels. Wherever around Leicestershire, Greenhill as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
Greenhill: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Schools Playing Fields, or midway across Greenhill, the engine may go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. No starting it again to check: stop once it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Greenhill sits under 3 miles from the M1; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system. That's why crossing Greenhill to park beside St David and a drive of under 15 miles towards Leicester are such separate jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been running. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Greenhill?
The car remains put, whether that is a road beside Bardon Hill Football Club, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Greenhill, and our van travels to it. The work depends on three answers, which our engineers get first — what went in, the quantity, and if the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after that tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed right through because what remains will not flush out unaided. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the last step. Whether it is a parking space outside Loughborough or a drive in Greenhill, that is where we start the engine and you head off. Before leaving, our technicians check it is running correctly with new diesel in. We do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Greenhill itself
Greenhill is a suburban area in Leicestershire, situated approximately 10 miles north of Leicester, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Greenhill sits at an elevation of around 174 metres, in a gently rolling inland landscape. Greenhill is close to nearby places such as Agar Nook, Coalville, and Bardon, and is about 98 miles northwest of London. Greenhill has a population of around 4529 people, living in a predominantly residential community.
AdBlue drains across Leicestershire, Greenhill included
Agar Nook, Coalville and Bardon are among the places near Greenhill that the same vans serve, along with most of Leicestershire further out, throughout the LE postcode area. Guessing won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
No towing is needed. In Greenhill, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: your vehicle is emptied on the spot, whether on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Greenhill: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat price would be honest, since each job is different. What shifts the cost is, first of all, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Agar Nook Community Centre.
That is why each call from Greenhill starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Those answers narrow the range down to a single number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Still next to your car in Greenhill?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Greenhill or anywhere within Leicestershire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.