Kirkstall: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your motor off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; damage just starts when the pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Kirkstall, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Kirkstall, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting LS5 3, or whichever street is nearest, and our van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: the motor stays off.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's pointless.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance down The Rise.
- By the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
Rolling the car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Kirkstall forecourt you are on, the Morrisons included. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps separate instead of blending — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very spot the intake draws from. A motor topped up on a drive in Moorside overnight and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though once the engine turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What is left when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's cleared out. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Kirkstall leaves it worse. In the tank only, time costs nothing. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the whole issue. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left in that tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Whitecote or the middle of Kirkstall.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the simplest section of the entire system to clear, wherever the vehicle has come to rest in West Yorkshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Kirkstall
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 bottle bought while heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. The top-up is hurried outside Kirkstall St Stephen's Church of England (VA) Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped in. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to Abbey Road. Or your car is topped up in the car park at West End House, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — hire cars, new ones, fleet ones, and the spare motor in a family with both fuels. An identical mistake, an identical first response — leave it off — anywhere you are around Kirkstall or the rest of West Yorkshire.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Kirkstall, and your engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Morris Wood, say, or midway across Kirkstall. No starting it again to test: pull over when safe, then switch everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the A58(M), under 3 miles from Kirkstall, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Kirkstall to park near Kirkstall Abbey (Ruins) and a drive of under 3 miles for Leeds are very distinct jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been run. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it is noticed quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Kirkstall
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Kirkstall: a side street near Abbey House Museum, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, about the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over: our engineers check first, since those shape the job.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed right through because what remains will not wash out by itself. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, if the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. After that our engineers start the car and you set off, whether from a parking space outside Headingley or a drive in Kirkstall. Before we go, our technicians make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. Since the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Kirkstall, briefly
Kirkstall is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the banks of the River Aire, approximately 2.6 miles from Leeds city centre. Kirkstall sits at an elevation of around 63 metres, with its riverside location influencing the local landscape. Kirkstall is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting the area's historical development as a residential suburb of Leeds. Kirkstall is close to nearby places such as Sandford, Hawksworth, and West Park, forming part of the wider Leeds urban area.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Kirkstall included
AdBlue call-outs around Kirkstall are passed to vans that serve the towns around it — Sandford, Hawksworth as well as West Park — and much of West Yorkshire beyond, throughout LS postcodes. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Anywhere the car sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Kirkstall, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Kirkstall
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Kirkstall Abbey Guest House Ruins.
That is why each call from Kirkstall starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. Given those replies, a range narrows to one fixed figure.
Before a van heads out, you are told our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Kirkstall and still next to the car?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Kirkstall or wherever in West Yorkshire.