AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Leigh Woods? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the engine off and keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Leigh Woods. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Leigh Woods: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take the keys away.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a BS8 3 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: the engine remains off.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, so leave it off.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way up Church Road.
- Draining the tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
The staff on duty at any Leigh Woods filling station — the Esso among them — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. At home, your car remains just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the very spot the pickup draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Clifton last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Once it is pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; and, since it eats at some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting till morning around Leigh Woods leaves things worse. Inside the tank alone, time costs nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Harvest Energy, and the issue is diluted fuel. No harm is done as long as it stays unused, blended into the diesel — only when your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Victoria Park or the centre of Leigh Woods, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Somerset the car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
Leigh Woods: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Hotwells Primary School. Close to Bridge Road, someone pours a bottle in on that drive in the evening. Else, in dim light outside White Lion Inn, your car is refilled by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a new car, a fleet vehicle, or the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers know the least. Anywhere across Somerset, Leigh Woods included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
Leigh Woods: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Rownham Plantation or halfway across Leigh Woods. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leigh Woods sits under 3 miles from the M32; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, so driving for Bristol, under 3 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Leigh Woods to the car park by St. Mary The Virgin. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been started. When it's spotted soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Leigh Woods: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest around Leigh Woods — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Ashton Court Railway — the van travels to your car. What got in, roughly how much, plus whether your engine has turned over: our technicians check before all else, since those shape the job.
Next, draining the tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. The system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. After that our engineers start the car and you drive off, whether from a parking bay by Clifton Down or a driveway around Leigh Woods. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Leigh Woods and where it is
Leigh Woods is a village situated on the riverside in Somerset, with a mix of flat housing and a population of around 637 residents. Leigh Woods lies close to the city of Bristol, approximately 1.5 miles away, and is near other local places such as Hotwells and Clifton Wood. Leigh Woods has an elevation of 101 metres and is located in the South West region of England, about 108 miles from London. Leigh Woods is a small community with a scenic riverside setting.
AdBlue drains around Leigh Woods and across Somerset
AdBlue call-outs around Leigh Woods go to teams that serve the places around it — Hotwells, Bower Ashton plus Clifton Wood — and much of Somerset further out, throughout BS postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Leigh Woods is a village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Leigh Woods: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs differ, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on 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 Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre.
Before any quote, not afterwards, every call from Leigh Woods opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether it ran. Those replies shrink the range down to a single number.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price on the phone. Then you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In Leigh Woods and still next to your car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the best thing you can do. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran is all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Somerset, Leigh Woods too.