AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Longbridge? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Longbridge. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Longbridge: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting B31 2, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you straight — so call wherever you are.
Don't:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave the car off.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up Longbridge Lane.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Moving the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Longbridge forecourt you're on, the BP included. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to treat the gases. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, which is why a car topped up in Rubery yesterday and not started stays the simple case, as long as no one turns your key.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; and, because it attacks some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Longbridge with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is only in your tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and the issue is diluted fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in your tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the following tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Longbridge or out in Northfield, does more harm than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere in West Midlands the car has come to rest, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Longbridge: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Rushing, outside St Columba's Catholic Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off High Street. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Cambridge, your vehicle gets refilled by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the other motor of a home with one of each fuels — the cars drivers know the least. Keep it off: that's the first step to an identical mistake, wherever around Longbridge or the rest of West Midlands you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Longbridge?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Austin Park, perhaps, or midway across Longbridge. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M5, under 3 miles from Longbridge, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, so heading for Birmingham, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Longbridge to the car park by The Factory. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been running. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it is noticed quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Longbridge
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Longbridge: a side street near Marks & Spencer, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, because those answers determine the work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through since residue won't wash out unaided. A test of the car comes last, after clean diesel is added and the filter gets cleaned or, if needed, replaced. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, at the nearest station or on a drive in Longbridge. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs properly on new diesel. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Longbridge and where it is
Longbridge is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the Worcestershire border. Longbridge sits at an elevation of 171 metres, with Cofton Common and West Heath nearby. Longbridge is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is located approximately 6.7 miles southwest of Birmingham city centre. Longbridge is also part of the larger Birmingham urban area, with Turves Green to the north.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Longbridge included
Cofton Common, West Heath and Turves Green are among the places around Longbridge that the same teams serve, together with most of West Midlands beyond, over the B postcode area. Ring and check rather than guess when you are by a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Longbridge is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Longbridge: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the jobs differ, a flat price wouldn't be fair. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind The Genie of Industry (Longbridge Interchange).
With that reason, every call from Longbridge opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of a figure. Their replies shrink the range right down to one figure.
Our price is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Longbridge: still beside the vehicle?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Longbridge or wherever within West Midlands.