Kirtlington: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system draws it in. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle stands in Kirtlington. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Kirtlington: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so do not bin it away.
- Give us a postcode starting OX5 3, or whichever street lies nearest, and our van finds you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: the engine remains off.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it is wasted.
- Even a short stretch up Heyford Road is too far to drive the car.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
The attendants working at any Kirtlington forecourt — the BP included — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Tackley last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of your tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through once the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Once it's sucked in, the harm takes two forms. It eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches until it's cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in tiny channels. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight in Kirtlington leaves it worse. Inside the tank only, waiting does nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that's the whole fault. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside that tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. It can't just be run through, because it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't 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 your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Gibralter or the middle of Kirtlington.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever in Oxfordshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Kirtlington: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap — may appear the same. No one means it; many layouts allow it. A container picked up when heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Kirtlington Church of England Primary School the refill is rushed. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Oxford Road. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the car after dark, parked in the car park outside Oxford Arms.
Rented motors, new cars, fleet vehicles, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it most. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, wherever around Kirtlington or the remainder of Oxfordshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Kirtlington, and your engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the fuel filter and pipework.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from South Green, perhaps, or part way across Kirtlington. When you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — with no turning it on again to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Kirtlington lies under 5 miles from the M40; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing Kirtlington to park beside Saint Mary the Virgin and a drive of under 10 miles for Oxford are very different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's caught quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Kirtlington
A road beside Kirtlington Village Hall, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your car has stopped around Kirtlington, our technicians come to it. What was put in, roughly how much, plus if your motor has turned over: our technicians ask before all else, since those shape the job.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than with petrol. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime the system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space by Tackley or a driveway in Kirtlington, that is where our engineers fire it up and you drive off. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Kirtlington
Kirtlington is a village in Oxfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Cherwell at an elevation of around 101 metres. Kirtlington lies approximately 8 miles northwest of Oxford and 55 miles west of London, with nearby villages including Church End, Bletchingdon, and Enslow. Kirtlington has a population of around 692 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Kirtlington included
Throughout the OX postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Kirtlington reach most of Oxfordshire as well, Church End, Bletchingdon and Enslow included. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Kirtlington, a village: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, since we empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Kirtlington: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, because the jobs are not the same. The cost moves 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 depends on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Bletchingdon Park.
For that reason, every call from Kirtlington begins with the identical trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of a figure. With them, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is travelling, dig out your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Kirtlington: still beside the car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Kirtlington or anywhere in Oxfordshire.