Highfield: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing happens until the motor pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Highfield, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has been run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Highfield: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting GL15 5, or just the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Centurion Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it yourself.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Highfield, whether it's the Co-op or somewhere else. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the intake draws from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Allaston overnight and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the foot of that tank, untouched — but it would be first through if the motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What is left once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Highfield with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is only in that tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in your tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits back out — and the next tankful will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Highfield or out in Tutnalls, costs more than nearly any other slip.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever across Gloucestershire the car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Highfield: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of layouts invite 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 occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Primrose Hill Church of England Primary Academy the top-up is hurried. Close to Archers Hall Place, someone tips a bottle in at home after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Greyhound, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Highfield or the remainder of Gloucestershire.
Highfield: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through your filter and lines.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Pogles Wood or halfway across Highfield. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M5, under 10 miles from Highfield, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Highfield to the car park by Saint Joseph is a very different job from a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to clean out once your engine has been run, and we do all of it where your car has stopped. Lasting damage is very unusual if it is caught quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Highfield
A street beside Community Centre, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever the car has stopped in Highfield, our technicians come to it. Three answers decide the job, so first we ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, and if your motor has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away unaided, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to bleed the system on new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at Lydney or on a driveway in Highfield. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs properly on new diesel. As the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Highfield itself
Highfield is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and approximately 14.8 miles from Gloucester. Highfield has a population of around 3159 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Highfield sits at an elevation of 65 metres, with nearby places including Primrose Hill, Newerne, and Lydney. Highfield is also within a commutable distance to London, being around 103.8 miles away.
Highfield and Gloucestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Primrose Hill, Newerne and Lydney are among the places near Highfield that the same teams serve, along with much of Gloucestershire further out, over the GL postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing when you're close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
No moving is needed. In Highfield, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: your car is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Highfield?
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things shift the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Studio 16.
That is why every call from Highfield starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single firm number.
You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off, 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 are on the way.
Highfield: still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Highfield or anywhere around Gloucestershire.