AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Harrow Hill? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts until your engine sucks it through. In Harrow Hill, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Harrow Hill
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it out.
- Ring just where you are. Say a GL17 9 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down Drybrook Road.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
On a forecourt in Harrow Hill, whether it's the Power or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car clear of the petrol pump. On the drive, your car stays just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Ruardean Hill yesterday and not started remains the straightforward one, provided no one touches the key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. 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 working on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked around Harrow Hill. Only inside that tank, it stays the same. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Murco and you have a fault of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is inside that tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits again — and the next tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Harrow Hill or out in Ruardean Woodside, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere the car has stopped in Gloucestershire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Harrow Hill?
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A bottle bought when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
Usually, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Steam Mills Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up your car. Near Trinity Road, a driver tips a container in on that drive after work. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the car after dark, parked in the car park outside Hearts of Oak.
The least familiar cars see it most — rentals, brand-new cars, company cars, and the spare motor of a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever across Gloucestershire, Harrow Hill as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Harrow Hill?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may show up, perhaps part way across Harrow Hill or returning from Haywood Plantation. No starting it again to test: stop once it is safe, then turn it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M50, under 10 miles from Harrow Hill, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
A quick hop across Harrow Hill to the car park by Holy Trinity is one thing; heading towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to flush once the engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Harrow Hill: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that's a street near Memorial Hall (Social Club), a drive, a layby or a forecourt around Harrow Hill, and our van comes to it. Three answers shape the job, and so first we ask what was put in, roughly the amount, and whether your motor has run.
Then your tank is drained where the car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, after clean diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, where needed, swapped. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Lydney or a drive in Harrow Hill, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. Our engineers check it runs correctly on clean diesel before leaving. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Harrow Hill
Harrow Hill is a locality in Gloucestershire, situated near the River Severn, with its elevation at around 176 metres above sea level. Harrow Hill lies close to the nearby settlements of Nailbridge, Steam Mills, and Drybrook, and is approximately 11.6 miles from Gloucester. Harrow Hill is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Harrow Hill is also relatively distant from London, at around 105 miles away.
Harrow Hill and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Nailbridge, Steam Mills and Drybrook are among the towns around Harrow Hill that the same teams serve, along with most of Gloucestershire further out, throughout the GL postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
Anywhere your vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Harrow Hill, a small village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Harrow Hill: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, and so not one fixed quote is honest. Three things change the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Ruardean Hill Baptist Church.
What went in, how much, and if the engine ran: every Harrow Hill enquiry opens with precisely that, ahead of any figure, not afterwards. Those replies narrow the range right down to one figure.
The quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Beside your car around Harrow Hill, still?
Right now, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Harrow Hill or anywhere within Gloucestershire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.