AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Headington? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and leave your ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Headington. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Headington
Do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting OX3 9, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Osler Road.
- By the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
On a forecourt in Headington, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the pump. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same place the intake draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Barton last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Once it's pulled 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, and so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. A car left standing in Headington with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the BP. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It does not 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in New Marston or the middle of Headington.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits just in that tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever the car has stopped in Oxfordshire.
Headington: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is not the forecourt: someone buys a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside St Andrew's Church of England Primary School, Oxford. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway near St. Andrew's Road. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the car after dark, parked in the car park by The White Hart.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — rentals, brand-new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuels. Anywhere across Oxfordshire, Headington included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
Headington: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through your filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Perhaps returning from Chris Wilkes Garden, or midway across Headington, your engine may go rough, smoke, lose pace, flash the dash or stall. When safe, stop and switch it off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
Headington sits under 5 miles from the M40; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
A quick hop across Headington to the car park by Old Headington Village Hall is one thing; driving for Oxford, under 3 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. If it is noticed soon, permanent damage is very unusual.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Headington: what it takes
A street by St Andrew's Church, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in Headington, our engineers come to it. What was put in, roughly the quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over: we check first, because those shape the job.
Then your tank is drained where the car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains won't flush away unaided. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Bleeding your system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, at Oxford or on a drive around Headington. The test before we head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Headington itself
Headington is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Oxford, situated near the River Cherwell in South East England. Headington sits at an elevation of 104 metres, with its semi-detached housing stock characteristic of the area's residential development. Headington is close to several nearby places, including Headington Quarry and New Headington, and is just 2.1 miles from Oxford city centre. Headington has a population of approximately 6128 residents.
AdBlue drains in Headington and across Oxfordshire
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around Headington also cover the spots round it, Headington Quarry, New Headington and Sandhills among them, and most of Oxfordshire beyond, across the OX postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
Headington is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Headington
Each job differs, so no single quote is fair. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Elizabeth Bowen.
What was put in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: each Headington call opens by asking exactly those, ahead of a figure, never afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
The price is given on the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Beside the vehicle in Headington, right now?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Headington or wherever in Oxfordshire.