Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ipstones
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. In Ipstones, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Ipstones, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not throw it away.
- Give us a postcode starting ST10 2, or whichever street is nearest, and our van finds you straight — so ring wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't thin it.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short distance down Froghall Road.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
Moving your car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Ipstones forecourt you are on, the Shell included. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. Nothing inside an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
It does not combine. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Blakelow yesterday and never switched on remains the simple one, as long as nobody turns the key.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; and, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays inside. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning around Ipstones leaves it worse. In the tank alone, time costs nothing. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Texaco, and this problem is thinned fuel. No damage comes while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when your engine works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Froghall or the middle of Ipstones.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Staffordshire the vehicle is standing.
Ipstones: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside St Leonard's Church of England First School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Brookfields Road. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Marquis of Granby.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere around Staffordshire, Ipstones as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Ipstones: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe coming back from Ipstones Recreation Ground, or part way across Ipstones, your engine might run rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or stall. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Ipstones lies under 15 miles from the M6; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Ipstones to the car park by Ipstones Methodist Church is a very different job from a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Ipstones
Anywhere it has come to rest in Ipstones — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Memorial Hall — the van travels to your car. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the engine has run, because those answers settle the work.
Then the tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. Next, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of the car. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the last step. After that our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Blythe Bridge or a drive in Ipstones. Our technicians make sure it runs smoothly on new diesel before we leave. As the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Ipstones itself
Ipstones is a village in Staffordshire, situated on the River Churnet at an elevation of 255 metres. Ipstones has a population of around 1146 people and is characterised by detached housing. Ipstones is located near the cities of Stoke-on-Trent and is about 131.8 miles from London. Ipstones sits near other small places like Above Church, Coltstone, and Foxt.
AdBlue drains in Ipstones and across Staffordshire
Over the ST postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Ipstones serve much of Staffordshire too, Above Church, Coltstone and Foxt included. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Ipstones is a village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Ipstones: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat figure could be fair, since every job is different. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Saint Leonard's.
That is why each call from Ipstones starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Once those are answered, a range becomes one fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the price by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Ipstones: still next to the vehicle?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Ipstones or anywhere within Staffordshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.