AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Little Madeley? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off then leave the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens till the engine pulls it round. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Little Madeley. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Little Madeley: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CW3 9, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Moving your vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Kingfisher Close is too far to drive it.
- By the road, don't try draining it yourself.
At a forecourt in Little Madeley, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the car away from the pump. On that drive, your car stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bowsey Wood last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. A motor left standing around Little Madeley with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Baldwins Gate Filling Station and you have a fault of thin fuel. No harm is done while it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the next fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Little Madeley or out in Finney Green, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere in Staffordshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
Little Madeley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside The Meadows Primary School. Someone tips the container in at home, right off Beck Road, as the day ends. Else, in dim light by Madeley Club, the car is refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever around Little Madeley or the rest of Staffordshire you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Little Madeley?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Bryn Wood or halfway across Little Madeley. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Little Madeley lies under a mile from the M6; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so driving for Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Little Madeley to the car park by Madeley Methodist Chapel. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted soon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Little Madeley: what it takes
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Little Madeley: a side street close to WWI & WWII War Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three replies, which our engineers ask for first — which fluid got in, the amount, and whether the engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one after the tank is emptied, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. Testing your vehicle comes last, once clean diesel goes in and your filter gets cleaned or, if needed, swapped. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the motor has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the final step. You head off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Little Madeley or in a bay at Longport. Before we leave, our technicians confirm it is running properly with fresh diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Little Madeley
Little Madeley is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 110 metres. Little Madeley lies near the city of Stoke-on-Trent, approximately 6.7 miles away, and is part of a larger area that includes Middle Madeley, Madeley, and Madeley Heath. Little Madeley has a population of around 1638 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
Little Madeley and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Middle Madeley, Madeley and Madeley Heath are among the places around Little Madeley that the same vans serve, together with most of Staffordshire beyond, throughout the CW postcode area. Ring and ask rather than guess when you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
Little Madeley is a residential suburb, and a mobile 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 stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Little Madeley
Each job is different, and so not one fixed price is honest. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Leycett Miners Memorial.
What was put in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Little Madeley call opens by asking exactly that, ahead of a quote, never after. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Little Madeley: still alongside your car?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran are all we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Staffordshire, Little Madeley included.