Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Holme Slack
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition as well. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing starts till your motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Holme Slack, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Holme Slack, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take your keys out.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting PR1 6, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance down Lilac Grove.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
The attendants on duty at any Holme Slack forecourt — the Asda included — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Brookfield last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny passages; and, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning around Holme Slack makes things worse. In your tank only, time costs nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A problem of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Sainsbury's. No harm comes as long as it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Whether your car sits in Gallows Hill or the centre of Holme Slack, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across Lancashire the car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Holme Slack
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. Nobody means it. It mostly occurs at home, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The top-up gets hurried outside Holme Slack Community Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped in. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Ash Holme. Or your car is topped up in the car park at White Hart, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar vehicles get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Holme Slack or the remainder of Lancashire you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Holme Slack?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
Perhaps returning from Eaves Brook Linear Park, or midway across Holme Slack, the engine may go lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M6, under 3 miles from Holme Slack, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Holme Slack to the car park by Marks & Spencer is one thing; heading for Preston, under 3 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to flush once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. If it's noticed quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Holme Slack
A road by St Gregory's Social Centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Holme Slack, our engineers travel to it. Three replies decide the work, and so first our technicians ask what went in, roughly what quantity, and if your engine has run.
Then the tank is cleared where the car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. A test of your car follows last, after fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets flushed or, where needed, replaced. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Preston or on a drive in Holme Slack. Before leaving, we make sure it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Holme Slack
Holme Slack is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Preston in Lancashire, situated near the River Ribble at an elevation of around 45 metres. Holme Slack sits close to nearby places such as Deepdale, Ribbleton, and Fishwick, and is approximately 1.2 miles from Preston city centre. Holme Slack has a population of around 6742 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Holme Slack is also relatively distant from London, at around 189.8 miles away.
Holme Slack and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Holme Slack are passed to teams that cover the places near it — Deepdale, Ribbleton plus Fishwick — and most of Lancashire further out, across PR postcodes. Ring and ask rather than guess if you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Holme Slack is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Holme Slack: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind St Gregory the Great.
Before a quote, not after, every enquiry from Holme Slack begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus whether it ran. Given those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our quote by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still alongside your car around Holme Slack?
Then, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Holme Slack or anywhere around Lancashire.