AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Longshaw? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your engine. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts until the engine sucks it round. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Longshaw. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Longshaw: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we can see.
- Call right where you are. Quote a BB2 3 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Do not:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition the car.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Tynwald Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Longshaw, whether it's the Texaco or elsewhere. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in Hollin Bank overnight and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once your motor turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is cleared out. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a car sitting around Longshaw. Just in the tank, it stays stable. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. Mixed into your diesel and left unused, it is harmless for now; using your motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it does not burn. Whether your vehicle is in Ewood or the centre of Longshaw, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in Lancashire your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Longshaw
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought when heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
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 Longshaw Community Junior School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Mona Road. One more version: darkness, the car park by Fox & Hounds, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented motors, new motors, fleet cars, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles get it most. Same slip, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Longshaw or the remainder of Lancashire.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Longshaw, and the motor started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Perhaps coming back from Fernhurst Wood, or midway across Longshaw, your motor may go rough, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or stall. When safe, pull over then turn it off — with no restarting to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M65, under 3 miles from Longshaw, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Longshaw to the car park by Church of the Saviour is a very different job from a run towards Preston, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's spotted early.
Longshaw: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped in Longshaw — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by Jack Walker Memorial Statue — the van comes to the vehicle. Three answers decide the job, and so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid went in, about the amount, plus if the motor has run.
Next, draining the tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since residue won't flush away by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of the car. Not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. You set off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Longshaw or in a bay by Mill Hill (Lancs). Before we leave, our technicians check it's running properly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Longshaw itself
Longshaw is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 147 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Longshaw lies approximately 9 miles from Preston and 183 miles from London, making it a commuter-friendly location. Longshaw is surrounded by other nearby places, including Higher Croft, Grimshaw Park, and Nova Scotia, and has a population of around 7344 residents. Longshaw's riverside setting provides a unique character to the area.
AdBlue drains in Longshaw and across Lancashire
Over the BB postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Longshaw reach most of Lancashire as well, Higher Croft, Grimshaw Park and Nova Scotia among them. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Longshaw is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the 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 in Longshaw: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, and so not one single quote is fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Ewood Park.
With that in mind, each call from Longshaw opens with the identical trio — what was put in, what quantity, if it ran — before a quote. With those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Beside the vehicle around Longshaw, still?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran is all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Lancashire, Longshaw too.