AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Highridge? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes when your pump begins drawing it. In Highridge, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Highridge, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting BS13 8, or just the name of a street nearby, so call from the spot.
Do not:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance along Sandburrows Road is too far to drive it.
- Draining that tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
Rolling the car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Highridge forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave it 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. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Headley Park last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; and, because it eats at some metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car parked around Highridge. Just in the tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a separate form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in that tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's 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 your car is in Bedminster Down or the middle of Highridge.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Bristol the vehicle is sitting.
Highridge: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Peter's Church of England Primary School (VC) the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Lakemead Grove. Another version: dim light, the car park outside The Tythings, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least known cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet ones, and the other motor of a home with one of each fuel types. Anywhere around Bristol, Highridge as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
Highridge: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the fuel filter and lines.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Kings Head Lane Park, say, or midway across Highridge. Once safe, stop and turn everything off — without turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Highridge sits under 5 miles from the M32; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Highridge to park beside St Peter and a drive of under 3 miles for Bristol are such separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it is spotted quickly.
Highridge: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Highridge: a side street close to Bishopsworth Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the job, so before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, and whether your engine has run.
Then the tank is emptied where your car waits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't clear out on its own. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the car. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. Then we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking space at Parson Street or a driveway around Highridge. The test before we head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Highridge itself
Highridge is a suburban area located on the riverside in Bristol, with an elevation of 56 metres above sea level. Highridge sits approximately 2.8 miles from Bristol city centre and is surrounded by nearby places such as Uplands, Bishopsworth, and Withywood. Highridge has a population of around 6265 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Highridge is situated in the South West region of England, about 107.7 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Highridge and Bristol
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Highridge also cover the spots about it, Uplands, Bishopsworth and Withywood among them, and most of Bristol beyond, across the BS postcode area. Ring and ask rather than guess if you're by a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
No towing is needed. In Highridge, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the car is emptied on the spot, whether in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Highridge
Every job differs, and so no single price would be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Headley Park Church.
Ahead of a quote, never after, each enquiry from Highridge begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Highridge and still beside your car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best thing you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Highridge or anywhere in Bristol, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.