AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Highfield? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the motor off and keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until your motor sucks it round. In Highfield, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Highfield
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting GL6 6, or whatever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so leave the car off.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not thin it.
- Even a short way up Field Road is too far to drive it.
- Beside the road, do not try draining it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Highfield, whether it's the Tesco or elsewhere. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
It does not combine. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle filled in Paganhill yesterday and not started stays the simple case, provided nobody touches your key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches till it is cleared from the system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny passages. A motor left sitting around Highfield with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Esso's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that is the main problem. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside the tank, it causes nothing.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Puckshole or the middle of Highfield.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside that tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever the car has stopped across Gloucestershire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Highfield?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container bought while heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside Whiteshill Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Lower Street, as the day ends. Else, in dim light outside Star Inn, your car gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it the most — hire cars, new ones, fleet ones, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. An identical slip, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Highfield or the remainder of Gloucestershire.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Highfield?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It has been pulled through the filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might appear, maybe part way across Highfield or coming back from Light Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M5, under 5 miles from Highfield, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so driving for Gloucester, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Highfield to the car park by Saint Paul. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. If it's caught quickly, permanent damage is very rare.
Highfield: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road beside Whiteshill and Ruscombe Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has stopped in Highfield, our technicians come to it. Three replies decide the work, so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, and whether the engine has run.
Then that tank is cleared where the vehicle waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because residue will not clear away by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Lastly, your system is primed with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay at Stroud or a drive in Highfield, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. The test before our engineers go is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Highfield itself
Highfield is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Gloucester in Gloucestershire, with a riverside setting that offers scenic views. Highfield sits at an elevation of 182 metres, close to nearby places such as Whiteshill and Ruscombe. Highfield has a population of around 1423 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Highfield is located approximately 7.2 miles from Gloucester and 91.9 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Gloucestershire, Highfield included
Whiteshill, Ruscombe and Bread Street are among the towns around Highfield that the same vans reach, together with most of Gloucestershire further out, throughout the GL postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
Anywhere your car stands — your driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it there, with no need to take it to us; that suits Highfield, a residential suburb, well.
Highfield: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one single figure would be honest, since every job is different. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open drive is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind Ruscombe Village Hall.
With that reason, every enquiry from Highfield begins with the identical trio — what got in, how much, whether the engine ran — before a quote. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
The price is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Highfield and still beside your car?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Highfield or anywhere in Gloucestershire.