Hazelslade: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition too. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes when your pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Hazelslade, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hazelslade
Do:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting WS12 0, or just the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Don't:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's pointless.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down Cannock Wood Street.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle away from the island if you are on a forecourt around Hazelslade, whether it is the Esso or elsewhere. On your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Neither side suits the other: urea does not 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 sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Prospect Village last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is flushed out. Pipes holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle parked around Hazelslade. Only inside your tank, it stays stable. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Church Hill or the middle of Hazelslade.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere around Staffordshire your car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Hazelslade
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Hazel Slade Primary Academy the refill is hurried. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive near Blackthorn Crescent. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Trafalgar, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that's the first response to the same mistake, wherever around Hazelslade or the rest of Staffordshire you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hazelslade?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
Perhaps coming back from Beau Desert Golf Club, or midway across Hazelslade, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or stall. When you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — without turning it on again to test. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M6 Toll, under 5 miles from Hazelslade, by the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Hazelslade to the car park by Hednesford Hills Raceway is a very different job from a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to clean out once the motor has run, and we do all of it where your car has ended up. When it is caught soon, permanent damage is very rare.
Hazelslade: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street beside Prospect Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the vehicle has come to rest around Hazelslade, our engineers come to it. Three replies shape the work, so first we ask what went in, about the amount, and if your engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since residue won't flush out unaided. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we get there, provided your motor hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Hednesford or on a driveway in Hazelslade. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Hazelslade, briefly
Hazelslade is a village in Staffordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 198 metres, approximately 6.3 miles from Lichfield. Hazelslade has a population of around 1634 people, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type. Hazelslade is located near other small villages such as Rawnsley, Wimblebury, and Littleworth, and is about 114.2 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains in Hazelslade and across Staffordshire
Rawnsley, Wimblebury and Littleworth are among the places near Hazelslade that the same teams reach, along with much of Staffordshire further out, throughout the WS postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you fits Hazelslade, a rural village: there's no need to bring the car to us, since we drain it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Hazelslade: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job is different, so no single price is honest. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Museum of Cannock Chase.
That is why each call from Hazelslade starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. When those are known, a range becomes a single fixed number.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still next to your car in Hazelslade?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best move open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Hazelslade or anywhere around Staffordshire.