AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Harley? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it's pulled through the lines — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Harley, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Harley: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can see.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting S62 7, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: the engine stays off.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance up Occupation Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
Moving the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Harley forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. At home, the car remains exactly as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Spittal Houses last night and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, untouched — but it would be the first thing through once the engine runs, before any diesel at all.
Once it is sucked in, the harm takes two forms. 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 gets to for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left sitting around Harley with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Brobot Hoyland Service Station, and this problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following tankful will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Harley or out in Warren, does more harm than almost any other error.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere in South Yorkshire the car sits.
Harley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Wentworth CofE Junior and Infant School. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Dike Hill, as the day ends. Else, after dark by The Horseshoe Inn, your car is refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
Hired cars, brand-new motors, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Wherever you're in Harley or the remainder of South Yorkshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Harley?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through your filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Hood Hill Plantation or halfway across Harley. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M1, under a mile from Harley, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Harley to the car park by Harley Mission is a very different job from a run towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has ended up, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. If it's spotted soon, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Harley: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Harley — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road by Harley Mission Rooms — the van travels to the car. Three answers shape the job, and so first our technicians ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, and if your engine has turned over.
Then your tank is drained where the vehicle sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. A test of your vehicle follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and the filter is cleaned or, if needed, swapped. Not run? In that case expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, by Elsecar or on a drive in Harley. It's checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Harley and where it is
Harley is a small village in South Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 85 metres. Harley lies close to the city of Sheffield, approximately 6.9 miles away, and is near other local places such as Low Harley, Hood Hill, and Barrow. Harley has a population of around 557 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing.
AdBlue drains across Harley and South Yorkshire
Over the S postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Harley serve much of South Yorkshire as well, Low Harley, Hood Hill and Barrow included. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you are by a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
No towing is needed. In Harley, a village, a mobile service fits: your car is drained on the spot, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Harley
Because the callouts vary, a flat price would not be honest. Three things move the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Fitzwilliam Family Burial Vault.
What went in, how much, and whether it ran: every Harley call begins by asking exactly those, before a quote, never afterwards. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Check your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Harley and still next to the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if it ran is everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout South Yorkshire, Harley included.