AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Little Heath? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully cleaned where the vehicle stands in Little Heath. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Little Heath, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians can see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CV6 6, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the car: the engine remains off.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance down Elmsdale Avenue.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
The staff working at any Little Heath forecourt — the Tesco included — will usually help pushing it clear if you ask. On the drive, your car stays just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, which is why a car filled in Rowleys Green last night and not switched on stays the simple case, as long as nobody touches your key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. 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, and so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. Pipes holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a vehicle sitting around Little Heath. Just in the tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Texaco, and this problem is diluted fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside that tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Edgwick or the middle of Little Heath.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across West Midlands your car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Little Heath: how it ends up there
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two may look identical. No one means it. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Holbrook Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Benthall Road. Another version: dim light, the car park by R.A.O.B Social Club, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
Rented cars, new motors, company vehicles, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. An identical slip, an identical first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you are in Little Heath or the rest of West Midlands.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Little Heath, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. It's been drawn through the fuel filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might show up, perhaps part way across Little Heath or returning from Peggy's Park. No starting it again to test: pull over when it is safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M6, under 3 miles from Little Heath, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Little Heath to park beside Indoor Market and a drive of under 3 miles towards Coventry are very separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the flushing where your car has stopped, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very rare if it is spotted early.
Little Heath: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Little Heath: a side street near Foleshill Road United Reform Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run: we check first, since those shape the work.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because residue won't flush away unaided. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, if the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking space by Coventry Arena or a driveway in Little Heath, that is where our engineers fire it up and you drive off. It's tested on clean diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Little Heath
Little Heath is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Sowe and close to the city of Coventry. Little Heath has a mix of terraced housing and is located at an elevation of around 97 metres, with nearby places including Foleshill and Hall Green. Little Heath is part of the larger Coventry urban area, but retains its own distinct character as a residential community.
Little Heath and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the CV postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Little Heath reach much of West Midlands as well, Foleshill, Parting of the Heaths and Hall Green included. Ring and ask rather than guess if you're close to a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Little Heath, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Little Heath?
Because each callouts vary, a single figure wouldn't be fair. Three things change the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Marks & Spencer.
Which fluid got in, how much, and if it ran: every Little Heath enquiry begins by asking exactly that, ahead of a figure, not afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van heads out, you are told the quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Beside the vehicle in Little Heath, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Little Heath or anywhere in West Midlands, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.