Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Holmcroft
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once the pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Holmcroft, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the engine has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Holmcroft: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we can see.
- Give us a postcode starting ST16 1, or whatever street lies closest, and the van finds you straight — so ring wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch up Second Avenue is too far to drive it.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
Rolling the car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Holmcroft forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. On that drive, your car stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very spot the intake sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Doxey last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. A vehicle left standing around Holmcroft with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that's the main problem. No damage comes while it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. It doesn't 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 counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Creswell or the middle of Holmcroft.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever across Staffordshire the car has come to rest, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
Holmcroft: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. No one means it. A container picked up while heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Tillington Manor Primary School the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off First Avenue. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Holmcroft, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere across Staffordshire, Holmcroft included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Holmcroft: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. It has been sucked through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
You may see your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Pitt Street, Doorstep Green, Friendship Garden or halfway across Holmcroft. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M6, under a mile from Holmcroft, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Holmcroft to park beside North End Community Centre and a drive of under 15 miles towards Stoke-on-Trent are such different jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been run. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Holmcroft: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Holmcroft: a side street close to Holmcroft Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three answers, which our technicians get before all else — which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed right through because residue won't wash out by itself. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of the car. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with clean diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Holmcroft or in a space by Stafford. We make sure it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Holmcroft and where it is
Holmcroft is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated near the River Trent at an elevation of 82 metres. Holmcroft lies within the West Midlands region, approximately 13.9 miles from Stoke-on-Trent and 124.3 miles from London. Holmcroft is characterised by its semi-detached housing and proximity to nearby places such as Tillington and Trinity Fields. Holmcroft has a population of around 5028 residents.
Holmcroft and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in Holmcroft go to vans that cover the places around it — Tillington, Trinity Fields as well as Parkside — and most of Staffordshire further out, throughout ST postcodes. Assuming won't help close to a border or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
No towing is needed. In Holmcroft, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Holmcroft: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job is different, and so not one single quote is fair. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind 20th Stafford (Saint Bertelin's) Scout Group.
With that in mind, each call from Holmcroft opens with the same trio — which fluid was put in, how much, if the engine ran — before any figure. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Holmcroft: still alongside your car?
Then, do nothing — that is the best step available. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Holmcroft or anywhere around Staffordshire.