AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in How Wood? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts till your motor pulls it through. In How Wood, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, How Wood: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so don't throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting AL2 2, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is wasted.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Penn Road.
- By the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
Moving your vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever How Wood forecourt you are on, the Shell included. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its supply from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Black Green yesterday and not started remains the simple one, as long as no one touches your key.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. By daybreak, a car sitting in How Wood with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is only inside your tank, nothing changes. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is in your tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of How Wood or out in Smug Oak, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Hertfordshire your car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around How Wood?
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside How Wood Primary and Nursery School. Close to How Wood, someone pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Else, after dark by The Falcon, your vehicle is refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in How Wood or the rest of Hertfordshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in How Wood?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
Perhaps returning from Birch Wood, or part way across How Wood, the motor may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or stall. When you safely can, pull over then switch it off — with no restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
How Wood sits under a mile from the M25; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across How Wood to park beside Park Street Baptist Church and a drive of under 3 miles for St Albans are such different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once your engine has been started, and we do all of it where your car has ended up. If it's caught quickly, permanent damage is very rare.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around How Wood
The car remains put, whether that's a street beside Roman Villa, a drive, a layby or a forecourt in How Wood, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and if your motor has been run, because those answers decide the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't clear out by itself. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Bleeding your system with new diesel comes last. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, at the nearest station or on a driveway in How Wood. Our technicians confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we leave. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About How Wood
How Wood is a village in Hertfordshire, situated approximately 2.3 miles from St Albans and 17.5 miles from London. How Wood sits in a relatively low-lying area at around 86 metres above sea level, surrounded by other small settlements like Park Street and Chiswell Green. How Wood has a population of around 2286 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
How Wood and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Park Street, Frogmore and Chiswell Green are among the places near How Wood that the same teams reach, along with much of Hertfordshire beyond, over the AL postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Anywhere the car stands — your drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits How Wood, a rural village, well.
How Wood: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Holy Trinity.
Which fluid went in, how much, and if the engine ran: each How Wood enquiry begins by asking precisely that, before any quote, not after. With those replies, a range narrows to a single fixed figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle in How Wood?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful step there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around How Wood or anywhere in Hertfordshire.