Lower Earley: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the motor off and leave the ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly purged where the vehicle stands around Lower Earley. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lower Earley: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Say a RG6 3 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: the engine remains off.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch up Knossington Close.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move the vehicle off the island if you are on a forecourt around Lower Earley, whether it's the Asda or somewhere else. At home, your car remains exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was intended to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Winnersh last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning in Lower Earley makes it worse. Inside your tank only, time costs nothing. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the BP. No damage comes as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Whiteknights or the middle of Lower Earley.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever in Berkshire your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
Lower Earley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many motors place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two can look identical. No one means it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The top-up gets rushed outside Loddon Primary School, after the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Maiden Place. One more version: darkness, the car park by Seven Red Roses, and a driver using that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars see it most — rentals, new cars, company cars, and the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types. Leave it off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere in Lower Earley or the remainder of Berkshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lower Earley, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Earley Event Field, perhaps, or midway across Lower Earley. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M4, under a mile from Lower Earley, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Hopping across Lower Earley to the car park by Maiden Place Community Centre is one matter; driving for Oxford, under 50 miles away, is another, since every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the engine has been run, and we do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Lower Earley?
Wherever it has come to rest around Lower Earley — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside Lower Earley Baptist Church — our van travels to the vehicle. What was put in, about how much, plus whether your engine has turned over: our technicians ask before all else, because those shape the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is emptied, on the spot. A full flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not clear away by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided your motor has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by Earley or a driveway around Lower Earley, that is where our engineers start the engine and you drive off. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs properly before our technicians head off. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Lower Earley
Lower Earley is a locality in Berkshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 45 metres, and is part of the larger Earley area. Lower Earley lies near the villages of Sindlesham and Earley, with The Parade being a nearby shopping area. Lower Earley is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the suburban nature of the locality. Lower Earley is also within commuting distance of major cities, including Oxford and London.
AdBlue drains across Berkshire, Lower Earley included
The Parade, Earley and Sindlesham are among the towns near Lower Earley that the same vans serve, together with most of Berkshire further out, over the RG postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Wherever the vehicle stands — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Lower Earley, a small village, well.
Lower Earley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one single figure would be honest, since each job differs. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Brookside Christian Centre.
Which fluid was put in, how much, plus whether it ran: each Lower Earley call begins with precisely those, before a figure, never afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Our price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Lower Earley and still alongside your car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Berkshire, Lower Earley included.