Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Little Heath
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your engine off and keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts till the motor pulls it through. In Little Heath, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Little Heath: the first few minutes
Do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CW3 0, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short way up Heathfield Road.
- By the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
Rolling your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Little Heath forecourt you are on, the Morrisons included. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Moblake last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, untouched — but it will be first through if the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
Once it's sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting around Little Heath. Only inside the tank, it stays the same. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that's the whole fault. Mixed through your diesel and sitting still, it is harmless for now; running your motor does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Chapel End or the middle of Little Heath.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around Cheshire your car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Little Heath
Many motors place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap, and after dark the two can look identical. No one means it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Audlem St James' CofE Primary School the top-up is rushed. A driver tips the container in outside their house, just off Cheshire Street, as the day ends. Another version: dim light, the car park by The Lord Combermere, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar vehicles see it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet ones, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. Leave it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in Little Heath or the remainder of Cheshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Little Heath, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. The filter and lines have had it sucked along, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Broomhall Wood, say, or part way across Little Heath. Once safe, pull over then turn it off — without restarting to see. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M6, under 10 miles from Little Heath, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Little Heath to the car park by Audlem Public Hall is a very different job from a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been running. When it's caught soon, long-term damage is very rare.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Little Heath
A road beside Saint James the Great, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has stopped in Little Heath, our technicians come to it. The job depends on three replies, which we ask for first — what went in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after your tank is drained, on the spot. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the car follows last, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if needed, replaced. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, at Wrenbury or on a drive around Little Heath. It's checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before our technicians leave. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Little Heath
Little Heath is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 68 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Little Heath lies near the towns of Audlem and Hankelow, and is approximately 14 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Little Heath is also close to Bunsley Bank, and its residents are around 143 miles from London. Little Heath has a population of around 1275 people.
AdBlue drains around Little Heath and across Cheshire
Throughout the CW postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Little Heath reach most of Cheshire as well, Audlem, Bunsley Bank and Hankelow among them. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
A mobile service suits Little Heath, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your car to us, because we drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Little Heath?
Every job is different, so not one single price is honest. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Day-Star Theatre.
Ahead of any figure, never afterwards, each call from Little Heath opens with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and whether it ran. With them, the range narrows to a single firm figure.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our price by phone. And you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Little Heath and still next to the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran is all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Cheshire, Little Heath too.