AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Ironbridge? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep your motor off then keep your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. In Ironbridge, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Ironbridge: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Remove your keys, and that stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so do not throw it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting TF8 7, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Moving the car just a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself starts your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along St Luke's Road.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Ironbridge forecourt — the Esso among them — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. On the drive, your car stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, which is why a car topped up in Broseley last night and never started stays the straightforward case, provided no one turns the key.
Once it is drawn in, the damage takes two forms. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle parked around Ironbridge. Just in the tank, it stays stable. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the main fault. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left in that tank, it causes nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It can't just be run through, because it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't 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 your car is in Coalbrookdale or the middle of Ironbridge.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever in Shropshire your car has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Ironbridge?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The refill gets rushed outside Woodlands Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Belmont Road. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Coracle.
It occurs most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you are around Ironbridge or the rest of Shropshire.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ironbridge, and the motor started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it has gone.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Ironbridge Gorge WHS or halfway across Ironbridge. Once safe, stop then switch it off — with no turning it on again to test. Every start pulls more of that through.
Ironbridge sits under 5 miles from the M54; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so driving towards Wolverhampton, under 25 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Ironbridge to the car park by Bedlam Furnaces. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is caught early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Ironbridge
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road near War Memorial Ironbridge, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Ironbridge, and the van travels to it. What was put in, about how much, plus if the motor has been run: our engineers check before all else, because those decide the work.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains will not wash away on its own. After that, the filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of your car. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking bay outside Telford Central or a drive around Ironbridge, that is where our engineers start it and you head off. It is tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our engineers leave. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Ironbridge and where it is
Ironbridge is a suburban area in Shropshire, situated on the banks of the River Severn at an elevation of around 68 metres. Ironbridge is located near several other communities, including Madeleywood, Jackfield, and Woodside, and is about 15 miles from Wolverhampton. Ironbridge has a population of approximately 1087 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Ironbridge is also within commuting distance of larger cities, being around 126 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Ironbridge and across Shropshire
Madeleywood, Jackfield and Woodside are among the places near Ironbridge that the same teams serve, together with most of Shropshire further out, over the TF postcode area. Near a boundary, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
Ironbridge is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Ironbridge
Because each jobs differ, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind St. Luke's Church.
That is why each call from Ironbridge starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Those answers narrow a range down to a single number.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the car around Ironbridge?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Shropshire, Ironbridge too.