Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Greenisland
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens until your motor pulls it round. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully flushed where the vehicle stands in Greenisland. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Greenisland: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BT38 8, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Moving your car just a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way down Heugh Road.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
On a forecourt around Greenisland, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car clear of the petrol pump. On that drive, the car stays just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Holywood last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches until it is removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow passages. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Greenisland leaves it worse. Inside your tank alone, time costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the another forecourt nearby, and the problem is thinned fuel. Blended into the diesel and left still, it is no threat at that stage; running your engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't help. That is why the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm here than almost any other mistake — in Glengormley or the heart of Greenisland alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere around County Antrim the car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Greenisland?
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Usually it is never the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
Usually, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside the local primary school the refill is rushed. Close to Welsh Place, a driver pours a container in at home in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside the pub in the village, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a rental, a new motor, a company car, or the spare car of a home with both fuel types — the vehicles people use least. Wherever in County Antrim, Greenisland as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Greenisland?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through the filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the injection pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
Perhaps returning from the green space at the edge of the village, or part way across Greenisland, your engine may run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. Once safe, pull over then turn it off — without restarting to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M77, over 50 miles from Greenisland, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Greenisland to the car park by the centre is a very different job from a run towards Belfast, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it's spotted early.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Greenisland
A street beside a street just off the centre, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Greenisland, our technicians travel to it. The work rests on three replies, which our engineers ask for before all else — what was put in, the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
Next, draining that tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Greenisland or in a space outside the nearest station. Before we go, our technicians confirm it is running correctly with clean diesel in. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Greenisland and where it is
Greenisland is a small coastal locality in County Antrim, situated near the shores of Belfast Lough. Greenisland has a low elevation of around 8 metres and is located approximately 7 miles from Belfast. Greenisland is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is close to nearby places such as Jordanstown and Carrickfergus. Greenisland is a relatively small community with a population of around 493 people.
AdBlue drains across County Antrim, Greenisland included
AdBlue jobs around Greenisland are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Jordanstown, Carrickfergus plus Newtownabbey — and most of County Antrim beyond, across BT postcodes. Phone and ask rather than guess if you're close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Greenisland, a coastal area, well.
Greenisland: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, so not one single quote is honest. What changes the price is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind the far end of the built-up part.
That is why every call from Greenisland starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our price on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Beside your car in Greenisland, still?
Not touching your car is, then, the best move open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Greenisland or anywhere within County Antrim.