Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Leasowe
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. In Leasowe, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Leasowe
To do:
- Pull the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so do not bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting CH46 3, or whichever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so call wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance up Findley Drive.
- By the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
The attendants on duty at any Leasowe filling station — the Shell among them — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup draws its fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Saughall Massie overnight and not started since counts as the straightforward case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though once the motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. A vehicle left sitting around Leasowe with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't just be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the following fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Leasowe or out in Wallasey, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Merseyside the vehicle is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Leasowe: how it ends up there
Many motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two may appear the same. Nobody intends it. A container picked up while heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Castleway Primary School. Close to Farnworth Avenue, a driver pours a bottle in at home in the evening. One more version: dim light, the car park outside Leasowe Golf Club, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Leasowe or the rest of Merseyside you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Leasowe, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. It has been drawn through the filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Perhaps returning from Leasowe Golf Club, or part way across Leasowe, your engine might go rough, smoke, lose pace, flash your dash or cut out. When safe, pull over and switch everything off — with no turning it on again to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M53, under a mile from Leasowe, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Leasowe to the car park by St Chad's is a very different job from a run towards Liverpool, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Leasowe: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A street beside Leasowe Library, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your car has stopped around Leasowe, we travel to it. Three answers decide the job, so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid went in, about the amount, plus if your motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after that tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed right through because residue will not wash out by itself. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we turn up, if your engine hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. Then our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking space by the nearest station or a drive around Leasowe. Before we leave, we check it is running properly with fresh diesel in. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Leasowe
Leasowe is a coastal suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the mouth of the River Mersey and close to the city of Liverpool. Leasowe has a low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level and is bordered by nearby places such as Moreton and Beechwood. Leasowe is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is home to a population of approximately 3831 residents. Leasowe is located about 5 miles from Liverpool city centre and around 182 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, Leasowe included
AdBlue jobs around Leasowe are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Moreton, Beechwood plus Bidston Hill — and most of Merseyside beyond, across CH postcodes. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
Leasowe is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Leasowe?
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Moreton Methodist Church.
Which fluid went in, how much, and whether it ran: each Leasowe call begins with precisely that, before any figure, not afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our price by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
In Leasowe and still next to the vehicle?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Merseyside, Leasowe included.