Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Knowle Style
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing happens until your motor pulls it through. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Knowle Style. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Knowle Style, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not bin it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting ST8 6, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift your vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down A527.
- Draining your tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
Moving your vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Knowle Style forecourt you are on, the Sainsbury's included. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup draws its supply 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 Braddocks Hay last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
After it is drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. A vehicle left sitting in Knowle Style with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water part harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Texaco, and the issue is thinned fuel. No harm is done as long as it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits again — and the following tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Knowle Style or out in Brown Lees, does more harm than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere in Staffordshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Knowle Style
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap — can look the same. No one means it; plenty of layouts allow it. A container picked up when heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Our Lady of Grace Catholic Academy. Near Colliers Way, someone tips a container in on the drive in the evening. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park by Crown & Cushion.
Hired vehicles, new vehicles, company cars, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least known vehicles see it the most. Wherever you are in Knowle Style or the rest of Staffordshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Knowle Style?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each may show up, perhaps part way across Knowle Style or returning from Church Road Recreation Ground. Once you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — without restarting to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M6, under 10 miles from Knowle Style, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why a hop across Knowle Style to park near St John the Evangelist and a drive of under 10 miles for Stoke-on-Trent are such different jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once your engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has stopped. When it's noticed quickly, long-term damage is very rare.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Knowle Style: what it takes
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Knowle Style: a side street near Biddulph Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what got in, about how much, and if the engine has been run, since those answers settle the work.
Then that tank is drained where your car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. A test of your car follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and the filter is cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by Kidsgrove or a driveway in Knowle Style, that is where we fire it up and you head off. Before we go, we check it's running properly with fresh diesel in. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Knowle Style itself
Knowle Style is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated approximately 6 miles from Stoke-on-Trent, and is characterised by its semi-detached housing stock. Knowle Style sits at an elevation of around 198 metres, in a region of gently rolling hills and countryside. Knowle Style is located near other local places such as Newpool, Biddulph, and Knypersley, and is home to a population of around 4746 residents. Knowle Style is positioned inland, about 140 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains across Knowle Style and Staffordshire
Over the ST postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Knowle Style reach most of Staffordshire too, Newpool, Biddulph and Knypersley included. Guessing won't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
No moving is needed. In Knowle Style, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Knowle Style?
No flat price would be fair, since every job differs. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Biddulph Youth Centre.
Which fluid went in, how much, plus if it ran: every Knowle Style enquiry opens with precisely that, before any figure, never afterwards. With them, a range narrows to one firm figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the vehicle around Knowle Style?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful move there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Knowle Style or wherever in Staffordshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.