Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Keele
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it does not 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 vehicle is in Keele, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Keele, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so do not bin it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting ST5 5, or whichever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Even a short stretch up Quarry Bank Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
At a forecourt around Keele, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the pump. On your own driveway, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A car filled on a driveway in Leycett overnight and left unstarted counts as the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches until it's removed from the system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting till morning around Keele makes things worse. In that tank only, time costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the Texaco. Mixed into the diesel and left unused, it's no threat at that stage; using your engine is the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the following tankful won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Keele or out in Madeley Heath, does more harm than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere in Staffordshire your car has stopped.
Keele: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside St John's CofE Primary Academy, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills your car. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive close to The Village. Another pattern: dim light, the car park by The Sneyd Arms, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a new car, a company motor, or the other vehicle in a family with both fuels — the cars people know the least. Wherever you're in Keele or the remainder of Staffordshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Keele?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Your filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may show up, perhaps part way across Keele or coming back from Church Plantation. No starting it again to test: stop once it is safe, then switch it off. Every start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M6, under a mile from Keele, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
Hopping across Keele to the car park by War Memorial is one thing; driving for Stoke-on-Trent, under 5 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it's noticed quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Keele: what it takes
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Keele: a side street near St. John the Baptist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three replies, which our technicians ask for before all else — which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. A test of the vehicle follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your motor has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. At that point our engineers start the car and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Longport or a drive around Keele. Our engineers check it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Keele itself
Keele is a small village in Staffordshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 185 metres, near the city of Stoke-on-Trent. Keele lies close to several nearby settlements, including Hawthorns, Silverdale, and Finney Green, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Keele is a relatively small community, with a population of approximately 314 residents, and is located about 4.9 miles from Stoke-on-Trent and 137.9 miles from London.
Keele and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Keele also cover the locations around it, Hawthorns, Silverdale and Finney Green among them, and most of Staffordshire beyond, across the ST postcode area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No towing is needed. In Keele, a rural village, a van that comes to you works: your car is emptied on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Keele
No flat figure could be honest, because every job differs. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Keele Village Hall.
That is why every call from Keele starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. Once they are answered, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
Our quote is given during the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Alongside the vehicle in Keele, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Keele or anywhere in Staffordshire.