Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Inkersall Green
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing starts till your engine sucks it through. In Inkersall Green, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Inkersall Green: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket the keys, and that prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting S43 3, or whatever street lies closest, and the van finds you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't weaken it.
- Even a short stretch along Dade Avenue is too far to drive the car.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the verge.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Inkersall Green, whether it's the JET or somewhere else. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the same spot the intake sucks from. A motor filled on a driveway in Brimington Common overnight and not started since is the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but once your motor runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, because it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. A vehicle left sitting in Inkersall Green with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Morrisons, and this problem is diluted fuel. Mixed into the diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat for now; using your motor is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether the vehicle is in Hollingwood or the centre of Inkersall Green, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not stay blended, so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere across Derbyshire the vehicle sits.
Inkersall Green: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it is not the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The top-up gets hurried outside Inkersall Spencer Academy, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped in. Near Denby Road, someone pours a bottle in at home in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Hop Flower, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Inkersall Green or the remainder of Derbyshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Inkersall Green, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may show up, perhaps part way across Inkersall Green or coming back from West Wood. 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 M1, under 3 miles from Inkersall Green, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Inkersall Green to the car park by St Columba is a very different job from a run towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. If it's spotted early, lasting damage is very rare.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Inkersall Green
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Inkersall Green: a side street near The Staveley Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, and our technicians get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if the motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is drained, on the spot. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not wash out by itself. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking space by Chesterfield or a driveway in Inkersall Green, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. Before we leave, our technicians make sure it is running correctly with clean diesel in. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Inkersall Green
Inkersall Green is a suburban area in Derbyshire, situated near the River Rother and close to the city of Sheffield. Inkersall Green has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most common, and it is located near other residential areas such as Middlecroft and Inkersall. Inkersall Green sits at an elevation of around 87 metres, making it a relatively low-lying area compared to the surrounding hills. Inkersall Green is part of the larger urban area surrounding Sheffield, but it remains a distinct community with its own character.
AdBlue drains in Inkersall Green and across Derbyshire
Throughout the S postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Inkersall Green reach most of Derbyshire too, Middlecroft, Inkersall and Hollingwood Estate among them. Assuming doesn't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
Inkersall Green is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Inkersall Green: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, so not one single quote would be fair. What changes the cost is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Brimington Common Methodist Chirch.
Which fluid got in, how much, plus if it ran: every Inkersall Green call opens by asking precisely that, before any quote, not afterwards. With them, a range narrows to one fixed figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told the price by phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Next to your car around Inkersall Green, right now?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Inkersall Green or anywhere within Derbyshire.