Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Knutsford
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens till your motor sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Knutsford, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Knutsford: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so don't bin it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting WA16 0, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: the engine remains off.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch up King Edward Road.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
Moving your vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Knutsford forecourt you're on, the Shell included. On that drive, the car remains exactly where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not combine. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Tabley Hill 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 pulled it in.
Once it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it overnight in Knutsford leaves it worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed into your diesel and left unused, it is no threat for now; using your engine is the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, and so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other mistake — in Over Tabley or the heart of Knutsford equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Cheshire the car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Knutsford
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; many designs invite it. A container bought while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Egerton Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills your car. Close to Bexton Road, a driver pours a bottle in at home after work. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside Dexter & Jones, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the spare motor in a family with one of each fuels — the cars people know the least. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere around Knutsford or the remainder of Cheshire you are.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Knutsford?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It's been drawn through your filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Perhaps returning from The Moor, or midway across Knutsford, the motor might go lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or stall. No starting it again to check: stop when safe, then switch it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Knutsford sits under 3 miles from the Knutsford Services Southbound; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up safely rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Knutsford to the car park by Knutsford Methodist Church is one matter; heading towards Salford, under 15 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. If it is caught quickly, long-term damage is very rare.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Knutsford: what it takes
A road beside Little Orange, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever the car has come to rest around Knutsford, we travel to it. Three replies shape the job, and so before anything else we ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. A careful flush matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not wash away on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to bleed your system on new diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, at the nearest station or on a driveway in Knutsford. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Knutsford, briefly
Knutsford is a town situated in the heart of Cheshire, set beside the lake-like expanses of the Tatton estate, at an elevation of around 68 metres. Knutsford lies near several smaller communities, including Cross Town, Over Knutsford, and Shaw Heath, and is located approximately 12.7 miles from Salford. Knutsford has a population of around 11558 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Knutsford is also some 156.1 miles northwest of London, in the North West region of England.
AdBlue drains across Knutsford and Cheshire
Over the WA postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Knutsford reach much of Cheshire too, Cross Town, Over Knutsford and Shaw Heath among them. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Knutsford is a town, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Knutsford: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because each jobs vary, a flat figure would not be honest. What moves the cost is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Knutsford Market.
That's why every call from Knutsford starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. Once they are answered, a range turns into one firm number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Knutsford and still beside the vehicle?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Cheshire, Knutsford included.