AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Hillfields? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the engine off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully flushed where your car sits around Hillfields. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hillfields: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take your keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Call just where you are. Say a BS16 4 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your car even a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch along Quadrant West.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Hillfields, whether it is the Esso or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — entirely different from fuel. It's 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 car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Fishponds 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 sucked it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A vehicle left sitting around Hillfields with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Morrisons. No damage is done as long as it stays unused, blended into the diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Whether the car sits in Upper Soundwell or the heart of Hillfields, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Bristol the vehicle is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Hillfields
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs invite it. Mostly it's not the forecourt: someone picks up a container heading home and pours it in outside the house.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Minerva Primary Academy. A driver tips the container in outside their house, just off Glendale, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, stopped in the car park by Warwick Arms.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — rentals, new ones, company ones, and the other motor in a home with one of each fuels. Same slip, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you are around Hillfields or the rest of Bristol.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hillfields?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It has been drawn through the filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Maybe returning from Hillfields Park, or midway across Hillfields, your motor may go lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M32, under 3 miles from Hillfields, at the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Hopping across Hillfields to the car park by Hillfields Park Baptist Church is one matter; driving towards Bristol, under 5 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been run. Noticed quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Hillfields: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest in Hillfields — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by Hillfields Youth Centre — our van travels to the vehicle. What got in, about how much, and whether your engine has turned over: our engineers check before all else, since those decide the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. After that, your filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of the vehicle. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the last step. After that we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Stapleton Road or a drive in Hillfields. The test before we leave is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Hillfields, briefly
Hillfields is a village located inland in the county of Bristol, sitting at an elevation of 87 metres and approximately 3.8 miles from the city of Bristol. Hillfields is surrounded by nearby places such as Mayfield Park, Chester Park, and Hopewell Hill, and is characterized by its predominant semi-detached housing. Hillfields has a population of around 4816 residents and is situated in the South West region of England, about 102.9 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Hillfields and Bristol
Mayfield Park, Chester Park and Hopewell Hill are among the towns near Hillfields that the same vans serve, together with much of Bristol beyond, over the BS postcode area. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
A van that comes to you suits Hillfields, a rural village: there's no need to bring the car to us, since our engineers empty it there, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Hillfields: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the callouts differ, a flat price would not be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, since an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind Hillfields Library.
Before a quote, never after, each call from Hillfields opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus if it ran. Their replies shrink the range down to a single number.
Before a van heads out, you hear the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still next to the car in Hillfields?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Bristol, Hillfields included.