Hollow Brook: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Hollow Brook, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hollow Brook: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket your keys, and that stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Call right where you are. Say a BS39 5 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way down Bonhill Lane.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Moving the vehicle off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Hollow Brook forecourt you're on, the Esso included. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate reservoir it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of it was intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Stowey last night and never switched on remains the straightforward one, provided nobody touches the key.
After it is pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and narrow passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning in Hollow Brook makes it worse. In your tank only, time does nothing. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Petrol put into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the whole problem. No damage is done as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the next tankful, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Moorledge or the centre of Hollow Brook equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere in Somerset your vehicle has stopped.
Hollow Brook: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside Bishop Sutton Primary School, after the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Walley Lane. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Red Lion.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the spare motor of a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use the least. Anywhere around Somerset, Hollow Brook included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hollow Brook?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, maybe part way across Hollow Brook or returning from Curl's Wood. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave it off rather than testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Leave the M32, under 10 miles from Hollow Brook, at the first junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
Hopping across Hollow Brook to the car park by Chew Valley Library is one matter; heading towards Bristol, under 10 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has ended up, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it is caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Hollow Brook?
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Hollow Brook: a side street close to Holy Trinity, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the job, and so first our engineers ask what got in, roughly what quantity, plus whether your engine has run.
Then your tank is cleared where your car stands, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not wash out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. A test of the car comes last, after fresh diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, where needed, swapped. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, by Parson Street or on a drive in Hollow Brook. Our technicians make sure it runs smoothly on new diesel before we leave. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Hollow Brook and where it is
Hollow Brook is a lakeside locality in Somerset, situated near the cities of Bristol and Bath, with a mix of rural and suburban characteristics. Hollow Brook has a relatively low elevation of 62 metres and is surrounded by other small settlements such as Bishop Sutton and Newtown. Hollow Brook is home to around 508 residents, who mostly live in detached houses. Hollow Brook is located near several other nearby places, including Golds Cross, and is about 7.7 miles from Bristol.
Hollow Brook and Somerset: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the BS postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Hollow Brook reach most of Somerset too, Bishop Sutton, Newtown and Golds Cross included. Assuming doesn't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
No towing is needed. In Hollow Brook, a small village, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Hollow Brook: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. What moves the cost is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Bishop Sutton Village Hall.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Hollow Brook opens by asking the identical trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether it ran — before any figure. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
The quote is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Alongside the car in Hollow Brook, right now?
Not touching your car is, right now, the most useful move you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Hollow Brook or wherever within Somerset.