Hunnington: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Hunnington, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hunnington
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it out.
- Call just where you are. Say a B62 0 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up The Close.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the car away from the island if you are at a forecourt around Hunnington, whether it's the BP or elsewhere. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its supply from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Hasbury overnight and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it's cleared out. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight around Hunnington makes it worse. In that tank alone, waiting does nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water part damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the main issue. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Kitwell or the heart of Hunnington, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not stay blended, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the following fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Worcestershire the vehicle is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hunnington: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many layouts allow it. It usually takes place outside the house, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside Romsley St Kenelm's CofE Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped in. Near Redhill Place, a driver tips a container in at home after work. Else, after dark by The Sun, the car gets topped up by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the spare car in a family with both fuel types — the vehicles people use the least. Wherever you're in Hunnington or the remainder of Worcestershire, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hunnington?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Breach Dingle, say, or part way across Hunnington. Once you safely can, stop and turn everything off — with no restarting to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M5, under 3 miles from Hunnington, at the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
Hopping across Hunnington to the car park by Bromsgrove Road Car Boot Market (Sundays) is one matter; driving for Birmingham, under 10 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to rinse out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where your car has ended up. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it is caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Hunnington?
Wherever it has come to rest around Hunnington — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside St. Kenelm's Church Hall — the van travels to the car. Three replies decide the work, and so first our technicians ask which fluid got in, roughly what quantity, plus if the engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one when that tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not wash out unaided. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. You drive off as soon as our technicians have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Hunnington or in a space at Old Hill. Before leaving, our technicians check it is running properly with new diesel in. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Hunnington, briefly
Hunnington is a small village in Worcestershire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 162 metres. Hunnington lies near the cities of Birmingham and Worcester, with the village of Lower Illey and the hamlets of Romsley and Illey nearby. Hunnington has a population of around 548 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Worcestershire, Hunnington included
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Hunnington also cover the places round it, Lower Illey, Romsley and Illey among them, and most of Worcestershire beyond, across the B postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Hunnington is a village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Hunnington: the cost of fixing it
No flat figure would be honest, because each job is different. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on 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 Romsley Methodist Church.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Hunnington call opens with precisely that, ahead of any figure, not afterwards. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Hunnington and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Hunnington or anywhere around Worcestershire.