Lane Head: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the motor off and leave the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts till your engine pulls it round. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Lane Head. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lane Head: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, and that stops someone turning the electrics on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a WA3 1 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Don't do these:
- Moving the car even a few yards is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant your ignition goes on, so keep it off.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance up The Limes.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road isn't worth trying.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt in Lane Head, whether it's the Esso or somewhere else. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than blending — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Bank Heath yesterday and not started remains the straightforward case, as long as nobody turns the key.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle sitting around Lane Head. Just in that tank, it stays stable. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Paul Hesketh, and the issue is thinned fuel. No harm comes while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the following tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Lane Head or out in Kenyon, costs more than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever in Greater Manchester the vehicle sits.
Lane Head: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside St Luke's CofE Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. After work, a container goes in on a drive close to Lime Grove. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside Red Lion.
Hired motors, brand-new vehicles, company vehicles, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles get it the most. Same slip, same first step — leave it off — anywhere you are in Lane Head or the rest of Greater Manchester.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lane Head, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
Maybe returning from Jubilee Wood Community Woodland, or part way across Lane Head, the engine might run rough, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or stall. No starting it again to test: stop once safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Lane Head sits under 3 miles from the M6; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so heading towards Salford, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Lane Head to the car park by Beard's Battery. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the engine has been run. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Lane Head
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Lane Head: a side street close to Lowton Community Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if the motor has been run, because those replies determine the work.
Then that tank is drained where the vehicle waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of the car follows last, once clean diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, where needed, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, if the engine has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, your system is primed with new diesel. Whether it's a parking bay by Newton-Le-Willows or a drive around Lane Head, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Before we go, we check it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Lane Head and where it is
Lane Head is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated inland at an elevation of 37 metres, approximately 11.5 miles from Salford. Lane Head is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature. Lane Head is located near the towns of Lowton and its surrounding areas, including Lowton St Marys and Lowton Heath.
AdBlue drains across Lane Head and Greater Manchester
Over the WA postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Lane Head reach much of Greater Manchester as well, Lowton St Marys, Lowton Heath and Town of Lowton included. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
A van that comes to you suits Lane Head, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the car to us, because our technicians empty it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Lane Head?
Each job differs, so no fixed quote would be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Church Lane Community Centre.
Ahead of any figure, not after, each enquiry from Lane Head begins with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Alongside your car around Lane Head, still?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best thing open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Greater Manchester, Lane Head included.