AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hadfield? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the motor off and keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The harm begins once it's sucked through your lines — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Hadfield, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has been run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Hadfield: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops someone turning the electrics on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting SK13 1, or just the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Don't do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Even a short distance along Platt Street is too far to drive it.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
Rolling your vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Hadfield forecourt you're on, the BP or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very spot the intake sucks from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Brookfield last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through if your engine runs, before any diesel at all.
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's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight in Hadfield makes things worse. Inside your tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the main problem. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in the tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the next tankful will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Hadfield or out in Shepley Street, costs more than nearly any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere in Derbyshire the car has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Hadfield: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. No one intends it. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside St Andrew's CofE Junior School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped off. Close to Station Road, a driver tips a container in on that drive after work. Or a driver new to that flap refills your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by The Palatine.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Hadfield or the rest of Derbyshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hadfield?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through your filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Bankswood Park or halfway across Hadfield. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M67, under 3 miles from Hadfield, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
A quick hop across Hadfield to the car park by Hadfield Hall is one thing; heading towards Manchester, under 15 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once your engine has been run, and we do all of it where the car has ended up. If it is noticed soon, lasting damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Hadfield?
The car stays where it is, whether that's a street near Hadfield Library, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Hadfield, and our van comes to it. Three answers shape the job, so before anything else we ask what got in, about the amount, and whether your engine has run.
Then that tank is emptied where your car stands, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned right through since residue will not flush out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians turn up, provided your engine hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the last step. Whether it is a parking space outside the nearest station or a drive in Hadfield, that is where our technicians fire it up and you head off. The test before we leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Hadfield
Hadfield is a village in Derbyshire, situated on the shores of the Peak Forest Canal and the surrounding hills at an elevation of 178 metres. Hadfield has a mix of old and new housing stock, with terraced houses being the predominant type, and is located near the villages of Padfield, Shaw, and Tintwistle. Hadfield is close to the city of Manchester, which is approximately 11.5 miles away, and is about 155.6 miles from London.
Hadfield and Derbyshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Hadfield also cover the spots about it, Padfield, Shaw and Tintwistle among them, and most of Derbyshire beyond, across the SK postcode area. Assuming doesn't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
A mobile service suits Hadfield, a village: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hadfield: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind War Memorial.
Which fluid was put in, how much, plus if it ran: every Hadfield enquiry opens by asking precisely those, ahead of a figure, never afterwards. With them, the range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Beside your car around Hadfield, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Hadfield or anywhere in Derbyshire.