Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kirkholt
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the engine off and keep the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Kirkholt, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kirkholt: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting OL11 2, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Don't:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Hogarth Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Kirkholt filling station — the Shell among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the very place the intake sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Lower Place last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of damage from there. It eats at certain metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches until it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow passages. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight in Kirkholt makes things worse. In the tank only, time does nothing. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Texaco, and this problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't 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 motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Stoneyfield or the middle of Kirkholt.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Greater Manchester your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Kirkholt
It is not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A bottle picked up when heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Sandbrook Community Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off The Strand. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Sandbrook.
Hired vehicles, brand-new motors, company vehicles, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least known cars get it most. Wherever you're in Kirkholt or the remainder of Greater Manchester, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kirkholt?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been drawn through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may show up, perhaps midway across Kirkholt or coming back from Balderstone Park. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave it off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the A627(M), under a mile from Kirkholt, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Hopping across Kirkholt to the car park by St. Thomas's is one thing; driving for Manchester, under 10 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's spotted soon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Kirkholt: what it takes
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Kirkholt: a side street close to Balderstone Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job depends on three answers, which our engineers get before all else — what was put in, the amount, and whether the engine has run.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. A test of your vehicle comes last, after clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets flushed or, where needed, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, provided your motor has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Castleton or on a drive in Kirkholt. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. No workshop is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Kirkholt, for a moment
Kirkholt is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Roch and close to the M62 motorway. Kirkholt sits at an elevation of 167 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Kirkholt is located near several other suburban areas, including Balderstone and Buersil, and is approximately 8.8 miles from Manchester city centre. Kirkholt has a population of around 6442 residents.
AdBlue drains across Kirkholt and Greater Manchester
Over the OL postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Kirkholt reach most of Greater Manchester too, Balderstone, Buersil and Pleasant View included. Assuming won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
A mobile service fits Kirkholt, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Kirkholt?
Not one flat price could be fair, since every job is different. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Team Karting.
What went in, how much, and if it ran: each Kirkholt call opens by asking exactly those, before any figure, never afterwards. Those answers narrow a range right down to a single figure.
You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Alongside the car around Kirkholt, still?
Not touching the car is, then, the best thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Kirkholt or anywhere in Greater Manchester.