AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Knotty Ash? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The harm begins once it's pulled through the lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. In Knotty Ash, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Knotty Ash: the first few minutes
Do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting L14 5, or whatever street is closest, and the van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Moving the vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't weaken it.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way down Thomas Lane.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
The staff working at any Knotty Ash forecourt — the Sainsbury's among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. No part inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was intended to go through one.
It doesn't blend. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Broad Green last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight around Knotty Ash leaves things worse. Inside your tank alone, time costs nothing. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the whole problem. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the next tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Knotty Ash or out in Sandfield Park, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Merseyside your car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Knotty Ash: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Knotty Ash Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Little Bongs. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside The Wheatsheaf, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, new vehicles, company cars, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, wherever around Knotty Ash or the rest of Merseyside you happen to be.
Knotty Ash: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Bright Park or halfway across Knotty Ash. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M62, under a mile from Knotty Ash, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Mileage counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further into your system, so heading for Liverpool, under 5 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Knotty Ash to the car park by Dovecot Community Centre. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. When it is caught quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Knotty Ash
The car stays put, whether that is a street near St John the Evangelist Knotty Ash, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Knotty Ash, and the van travels to it. The work depends on three replies, and our technicians get first — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after your tank is drained, on the spot. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing the car comes at the end, once clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter is flushed or, where necessary, replaced. If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. You set off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway in Knotty Ash or in a space by Broad Green. Our engineers confirm it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Knotty Ash
Knotty Ash is a suburban area in Merseyside, located approximately 3.6 miles from Liverpool city centre. Knotty Ash sits inland at an elevation of around 38 metres, with nearby places including Mill Yard, Swanside, and Dovecot. Knotty Ash is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region. Knotty Ash is home to around 5226 people, according to approximate population figures.
AdBlue drains across Knotty Ash and Merseyside
Throughout the L postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Knotty Ash serve much of Merseyside too, Mill Yard, Swanside and Dovecot among them. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
Knotty Ash is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Knotty Ash: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the callouts differ, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Cavalry Church.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: every Knotty Ash call begins with exactly that, ahead of a figure, not after. Their answers narrow a range down to a single number.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still beside the car in Knotty Ash?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Knotty Ash or anywhere in Merseyside, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.