AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hollywood? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts once the pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Hollywood, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Hollywood: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting B47 5, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way along Arden Road.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
The staff on duty at any Hollywood filling station — the JET included — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what the motor emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the very spot the intake sucks from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it waits underneath your diesel, which is why a car filled in Truemans Heath last night and never switched on stays the simple case, as long as no one touches the key.
After it's drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. A vehicle left sitting around Hollywood with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water part harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Texaco, and the problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Grimes Hill or the middle of Hollywood.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Worcestershire the car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Hollywood
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The refill gets rushed outside Coppice Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Warmington Road. Or someone new to that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by The Packhorse.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the other motor of a home with one of each fuels — the cars drivers know least. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere around Hollywood or the remainder of Worcestershire you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hollywood?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may show up, maybe part way across Hollywood or coming back from Hollywood Golf Club. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M42, under 3 miles from Hollywood, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That is why crossing Hollywood to park beside Wythall Community Library and a drive of under 10 miles for Birmingham are such distinct jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once your engine has been started. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage if it is spotted early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Hollywood: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest in Hollywood — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road beside Woodrush Community Hub — our van travels to your car. Before anything else we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run, since those replies decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when the tank is drained, right there. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not wash out by itself. After that, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the engine has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, the system is primed with clean diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Wythall or on a drive in Hollywood. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Hollywood itself
Hollywood is a village in Worcestershire, situated inland at an elevation of around 152 metres, approximately 6 miles southwest of Birmingham. Hollywood lies near several smaller settlements, including Drakes Cross and Batemans Green, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Hollywood is a relatively small community, with a population of around 2841 residents, and is located about 96 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains around Hollywood and across Worcestershire
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Hollywood also cover the places round it, Drakes Cross, Batemans Green and Shawbrook among them, and most of Worcestershire beyond, across the B postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you suits Hollywood, a rural village: there's no need to bring the car to us, because our technicians drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hollywood: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, and so no single quote is honest. What changes the price is, first of all, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Woodrush Sports Centre.
Before any figure, never after, each enquiry from Hollywood begins with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. Their answers narrow the range down to a single number.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. While the van is on the way, check your policy: many include misfuelling.
Next to the vehicle around Hollywood, still?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Hollywood or wherever within Worcestershire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.