Groundwell: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Groundwell, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Groundwell: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting SN25 4, or whatever street lies closest, and the van finds you straight — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: the engine stays off.
- Switching your key to ignition alone sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way down Thresher Drive.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
Get the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the island if you're at a forecourt around Groundwell, whether it's the BP or somewhere else. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was intended to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in St Andrews Ridge last night and not switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as no one touches your key.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; and, since it attacks some metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Pipes holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car sitting in Groundwell. Only in your tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on Asda's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that's the whole problem. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the following tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Groundwell or out in Kingsdown, costs more than almost any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere in Wiltshire your vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Groundwell?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside Abbey Meads Community Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Farmer Crescent. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Robins Farm, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar cars get it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet cars, and the spare vehicle of a home with both fuel types. Keep it switched off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, wherever around Groundwell or the rest of Wiltshire you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Groundwell?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Maybe coming back from Nalgo Sports & Leisure, or midway across Groundwell, your engine may go lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. Once safe, stop then turn it off — with no restarting to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M4, under 5 miles from Groundwell, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so heading for Oxford, under 25 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Groundwell to the car park by Chippenham Close Community Centre. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has ended up, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Groundwell?
A street beside David Lloyd Clubs, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever the car has stopped around Groundwell, our engineers come to it. What got in, about the quantity, and if your motor has been run: our technicians ask before all else, because those decide the work.
Then the tank is emptied where the vehicle waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts far more after AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains won't clear out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking space by Swindon or a drive around Groundwell, that is where our engineers start the engine and you head off. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Groundwell itself
Groundwell is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 131 metres. Groundwell lies near the cities of Swindon and Oxford, and is close to nearby places such as Penhill, Hyde, and Abbey Meads. Groundwell has a population of approximately 5161 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Groundwell is located 71.3 miles from London, making it a commuter hub for those working in the capital.
AdBlue drains across Groundwell and Wiltshire
AdBlue call-outs in Groundwell are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Penhill, Hyde plus Abbey Meads — and much of Wiltshire further out, across SN postcodes. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Anywhere your car sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Groundwell, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Groundwell?
Since each callouts differ, a single figure would not be fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Penhill Community Church.
Before a figure, not after, each call from Groundwell opens with three checks: the liquid, the amount, and if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside the car around Groundwell, still?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Wiltshire, Groundwell included.