Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kirkham
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once your pump begins drawing it. In Kirkham, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Kirkham: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Take the keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so don't bin it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PR4 2, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant the ignition goes on, so keep it off.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's pointless.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Poulton Street.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
At a forecourt in Kirkham, whether it is the Texaco or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the petrol pump. On your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same place the pickup sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Treales last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does 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's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. A vehicle left sitting in Kirkham with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the EG On the Move. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Ribby or the heart of Kirkham alike.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever across Lancashire your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Kirkham
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Kirkham St Michael's Church of England Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Freckleton Street. Or someone new to that flap tops up your car after dark, parked in the car park outside Queen's Arms.
It crops up most in a rental, a new car, a fleet motor, or the spare vehicle of a family with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers use the least. Leave it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in Kirkham or the rest of Lancashire you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kirkham?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. It has been drawn through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may appear, perhaps part way across Kirkham or coming back from Memorial Park. No restarting to test: pull over when it is safe, then turn it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M55, under 3 miles from Kirkham, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Kirkham to the car park by Market Cross is a very different job from a run towards Preston, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once your engine has been run, and we do all of it where the car has ended up. If it's caught early, lasting damage is very rare.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Kirkham: what it takes
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road near Kirkham Community Centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt in Kirkham, and our van comes to it. Three replies shape the work, and so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, and whether your engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after that tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue won't flush out by itself. Testing your vehicle comes last, once clean diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, where needed, swapped. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Kirkham & Wesham or on a drive in Kirkham. Before we go, our engineers check it is running properly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Kirkham
Kirkham is a town in Lancashire, situated on the banks of the River Ribble at an elevation of around 24 metres. Kirkham lies approximately 7 miles west of Preston and is surrounded by nearby places such as Dowbridge, Wesham, and Mowbreck. Kirkham has a population of around 10,189 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Kirkham is located in the North West region of England, about 195 miles north-west of London.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Kirkham included
AdBlue call-outs in Kirkham are passed to teams that cover the places near it — Dowbridge, Wesham as well as Mowbreck — and most of Lancashire beyond, throughout PR postcodes. Ring and ask rather than guess when you are by a county line, or anywhere awkward to explain.
No towing is needed. In Kirkham, a riverside town, a van that comes to you fits: your car is emptied where it stands, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Kirkham: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, and so no fixed quote is fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind St Michael's Church.
What was put in, how much, plus whether it ran: every Kirkham call begins by asking precisely that, ahead of any figure, not after. When they are known, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Before a van sets off, you hear the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still next to the car in Kirkham?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Kirkham or wherever in Lancashire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.