Guide: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and leave your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The harm starts once it's pulled through your pump — it will not burn, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Guide, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Guide: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops anyone turning the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting BB1 2, or whatever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Never do these:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short stretch along School Lane.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
On a forecourt in Guide, whether it's the EG On the Move or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the petrol pump. On your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what your engine emits. Nothing inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very place the intake sucks from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a car filled in Shadsworth yesterday and not started remains the straightforward one, provided no one turns the key.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it overnight in Guide leaves it worse. In the tank only, time does nothing. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have a problem of thin fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting still, it is harmless for now; using the motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether your car is in Whinny Heights or the heart of Guide, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits just in the tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest across Lancashire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Guide?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought while driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Shadsworth Junior School. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive close to A6077. One more version: dim light, a pub car park by King Edward VII, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in Lancashire, Guide included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Guide, and the engine started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through your filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Queen's Park, or part way across Guide, your motor might run rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Guide sits under a mile from the M65; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Guide to the car park by St James is a very different job from a run towards Preston, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it's spotted soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Guide
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Guide: a side street close to Roman Road Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has been run: our engineers check before all else, since those shape the work.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Your system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of your car. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The last step is to bleed the system on new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, outside Blackburn or on a drive around Guide. It's checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our engineers head off. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Guide and where it is
Guide is a small suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the lakeside at an elevation of 206 metres. Guide is located near several other local places, including Blackamoor, Grimshaw, and Whinny Edge, and is approximately 10.5 miles from the city of Preston. Guide has a population of around 580 people and features predominantly terraced housing. Guide is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 181.7 miles.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Guide included
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Guide also cover the places around it, Blackamoor, Grimshaw and Whinny Edge among them, and most of Lancashire beyond, across the BB postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess if you are by a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service fits Guide, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Guide?
Since the jobs differ, a single figure would not be honest. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight spot behind St Oswald.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: each Guide enquiry begins with exactly those, before a quote, never afterwards. Those replies narrow the range down to one number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still alongside the vehicle around Guide?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Guide or wherever in Lancashire, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.