AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Highley? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's sucked through the pump — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. In Highley, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Highley
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting WV16 6, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Even a short way along Barke Street is too far to drive the car.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Moving your vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Highley forecourt you're on, the the nearest petrol station or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to go that way.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the very place the intake draws from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Alveley last night and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through once your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight around Highley makes it worse. In your tank alone, time does nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more significant than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the whole problem. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside that tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Fenn Green or the middle of Highley.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only in that tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Shropshire.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Highley: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A container picked up when heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the typical story.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Highley Community Primary School the top-up is rushed. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive near Orchard Street. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Highley Working Mens Club, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, same first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Highley or the remainder of Shropshire.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Highley?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It's been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may appear, maybe midway across Highley or returning from Severn Valley Country Park Woods. Once you safely can, pull over and turn everything off — without restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M5, under 15 miles from Highley, at the next junction and park safely, not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Highley to the car park by St Mary's is a very different job from a run towards Wolverhampton, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after your engine has been run. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's caught quickly.
Highley: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Highley: a side street close to Severn Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly the amount, plus whether your engine has run.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned right through since what remains will not wash away by itself. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a check of the vehicle. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking space outside Kidderminster or a driveway around Highley, that is where our technicians start the engine and you drive off. We make sure it runs correctly on new diesel before we leave. We do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Highley
Highley is a village in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 109 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Highley lies approximately 14 miles from Wolverhampton and 116 miles from London, placing it in a relatively central position within the West Midlands region. Highley is surrounded by other small villages, including Netherton, Stanley, and Woodhill, and has a population of around 1389 residents. Highley remains a small, quiet community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across Highley and Shropshire
AdBlue call-outs around Highley are passed to vans that cover the places near it — Netherton, Stanley as well as Woodhill — and much of Shropshire further out, across WV postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you suits Highley, a rural village: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, since we drain it there, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Highley: the cost of fixing it
No single price would be fair, since every job differs. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Highley Library.
That's why every call from Highley starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. Their answers shrink the range down to one number.
Before a van sets off, you are told the quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Alongside your car around Highley, still?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Highley or wherever in Shropshire.