AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Gretton? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. In Gretton, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Gretton: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Which product, and about what amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call just where you are. Say a GL54 5 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment your ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it's wasted.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up Gretton Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your car off the island if you are on a forecourt in Gretton, whether it's the Gulf or somewhere else. At your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the very place the intake draws from. A motor filled on a drive in Alderton Fields overnight and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when the engine runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. 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 running on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight in Gretton leaves it worse. In that tank only, time costs nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Murco and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage comes while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the next fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Gretton or out in Frampton Court, costs more than nearly any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere in Gloucestershire the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Gretton
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: someone buys a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Gretton Primary School the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Working Lane. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Royal Oak.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company car, or the other motor in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers use least. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Gretton or the remainder of Gloucestershire you happen to be.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Gretton?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may show up, maybe midway across Gretton or coming back from Stanley Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M5, under 10 miles from Gretton, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Gretton to the car park by Gretton Village Hall is a very different job from a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has ended up. When it's noticed early, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Gretton?
Wherever it has come to rest around Gretton — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Christ Church — the van travels to the car. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run, since those replies settle this work.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned right through because residue won't flush out by itself. A test of your vehicle comes last, once clean diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, outside Ashchurch for Tewkesbury or on a drive around Gretton. It's checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we go. Since the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Gretton itself
Gretton is a small village in Gloucestershire, situated inland at an elevation of around 88 metres. Gretton lies near the larger city of Gloucester, approximately 13 miles to the south, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Stanley Pontlarge and Greet. Gretton has a population of around 528 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Gretton is located in the South West region of England, about 85 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains in Gretton and across Gloucestershire
Stanley Pontlarge, Gretton Fields and Greet are among the places near Gretton that the same teams serve, along with most of Gloucestershire further out, throughout the GL postcode area. Near a boundary, or somewhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Gretton is a rural village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle 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.
Gretton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job is different, and so not one single quote is honest. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind St Michael's, Stanley Pontlarge.
With that reason, every enquiry from Gretton begins by asking the same trio — what was put in, how much, if it ran — before any figure. Once those are known, a range turns into a single fixed number.
Our quote is given during the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Gretton and still alongside the car?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best thing open to you. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Gretton or wherever within Gloucestershire.