Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lees
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. In Lees, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Lees: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so do not bin it out.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting BD22 9, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the spot.
Never do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the car: your engine remains off.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance along Laburnum Grove.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it yourself.
The attendants working at any Lees forecourt — the Shell included — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Harewood Hill 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 does 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's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning in Lees leaves things worse. In the tank alone, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in your tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Dockroyd or the middle of Lees.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere around West Yorkshire the vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Lees?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Lees Primary School. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Fellwood Close. Or the car is topped up in the car park at Bronte Hotel, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented motors, brand-new motors, company cars, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Wherever around West Yorkshire, Lees included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it switched off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lees?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may appear, perhaps midway across Lees or returning from Cross Roads Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M606, under 10 miles from Lees, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
A quick hop across Lees to the car park by Lees Methodist Church is one thing; driving towards Bradford, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very rare if it's caught quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Lees
Anywhere it has come to rest in Lees — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street by St James — our van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the motor has run, since those answers settle the work.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. A careful flush matters far more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't wash away by itself. Testing the car follows last, once clean diesel goes in and your filter gets flushed or, where needed, replaced. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Keighley or a drive around Lees, that is where our technicians start the car and you set off. We check it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Lees and where it is
Lees is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near several lakes and reservoirs at an elevation of 212 metres. Lees lies approximately 8 miles from Bradford and is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing stock. Lees is one of several small communities in the area, including nearby Cross Roads, Lane End, and Barcroft. Lees has a population of around 3299 residents.
Lees and West Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Lees go to vans that cover the towns near it — Cross Roads, Lane End plus Barcroft — and most of West Yorkshire further out, throughout BD postcodes. Guessing won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Wherever the car sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, with no need to take it to us; which suits Lees, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Lees?
Not one flat figure could be fair, because each job differs. What moves the cost is, first of all, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then 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 Our Lady of Lourdes.
With that in mind, each call from Lees opens by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of a figure. Once those are answered, a range becomes a single firm figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Lees: still beside the vehicle?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran is all we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across West Yorkshire, Lees included.