Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Intake
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and the ignition as well. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. In Intake, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Intake: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting LS13 1, or just the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts the pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance up Calverley Lane.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the island if you are on a forecourt around Intake, whether it is the Jet or somewhere else. On the drive, the vehicle remains just where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Rodley last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Intake with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is only inside the tank, nothing changes. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole fault. Blended through your diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; running the motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Swinnow or the middle of Intake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around West Yorkshire the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Intake: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may appear the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs invite it. It usually takes place at home, from a container bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Valley View Community Primary School the refill is hurried. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive near Ashgrove Mews. Another version: dim light, the car park outside Stanningley Sports and Amateur Rugby League Club;Stanningley ARLFC And Social Club, and someone opening that flap the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company motor, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels — the vehicles people use least. Same slip, an identical first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you are in Intake or the remainder of West Yorkshire.
Intake: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed through the filter and lines.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Rodley Park or halfway across Intake. 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.
Intake sits under 5 miles from the Inner Ring Road; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Hopping across Intake to the car park by The Church in Rodley is one thing; heading towards Leeds, under 5 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. If it is caught early, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Intake?
A road beside Atlanta Street Community Centre, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever your car has stopped in Intake, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, because those replies settle the work.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we arrive, provided the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming your system with clean diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, at Bramley (West Yorkshire) or on a drive in Intake. Before we go, our technicians make sure it is running correctly with clean diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Intake and where it is
Intake is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near the River Aire and approximately 4 miles from Leeds city centre. Intake has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant in the area. Intake sits at an elevation of around 86 metres, with nearby natural features including Farsley Beck Bottom and Bradley Hill.
AdBlue drains across Intake and West Yorkshire
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Intake also cover the places around it, Farsley Beck Bottom, Half Mile and Bradley Hill among them, and most of West Yorkshire beyond, across the LS postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
Intake 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, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Intake?
No flat figure would be fair, since each job differs. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open drive is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind St John's Methodist Church.
What got in, how much, and whether it ran: each Intake enquiry opens with precisely that, ahead of a quote, not after. Once they are known, a range becomes a single fixed number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Intake and still alongside the vehicle?
Not touching your car is, then, the best move open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 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 Intake or anywhere around West Yorkshire.