AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Handsacre? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens till your motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Handsacre, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Handsacre, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take the keys away.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about what amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Call right where you are. Quote a WS15 4 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance up Tuppenhurst Lane.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
Ask the attendants to help you move your vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Handsacre, whether it is the Esso or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same spot the intake draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Hill Top last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches until it's cleared from the system. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow passages. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle sitting around Handsacre. Only in your tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only once your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the car is in Longdon or the centre of Handsacre, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Staffordshire the car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Handsacre?
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many designs allow it. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Hayes Meadow Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Someone tips the container in outside their house, just off Uttoxeter Road, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Olde Peculiar, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar cars see it the most — rentals, brand-new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a home with both fuel types. Anywhere across Staffordshire, Handsacre included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
Handsacre: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the filter, along the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may show up, perhaps midway across Handsacre or coming back from Hood Lane Covert. When safe, stop and turn everything off — with no turning it on again to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M6 Toll, under 10 miles from Handsacre, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so heading towards Lichfield, under 5 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Handsacre to the car park by Handsacre Methodist Church. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Lasting damage is very rare when it is caught early.
Handsacre: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street beside Armitage with Handsacre Village Hall, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your car has stopped around Handsacre, our engineers travel to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if the engine has run, since those answers settle the work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts 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 has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Last, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. Whether it is a parking bay at Rugeley Town or a drive in Handsacre, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. Before we go, our technicians confirm it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. Since 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 both come at the end.
About Handsacre
Handsacre is a village in southern Staffordshire, situated on the banks of the River Trent at an elevation of around 80 metres. Handsacre lies near the city of Lichfield, with which it has strong transport links, and is also close to the villages of Tuppenhurst, Armitage, and Mavesyn Ridware. Handsacre has a population of approximately 2886 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Handsacre and across Staffordshire
Throughout the WS postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Handsacre reach most of Staffordshire as well, Tuppenhurst, Armitage and Mavesyn Ridware among them. Close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
A mobile service suits Handsacre, a village: there's no need to take the car to us, because our engineers drain it there, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Handsacre
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Three things move the price: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind Armitage United Reform Church Chapel.
With that reason, every enquiry from Handsacre begins with the identical trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed number.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Next to the car around Handsacre, still?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Handsacre or wherever in Staffordshire.