AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Heath? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens till the engine sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Lower Heath, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has been run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lower Heath
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops anyone turning the power on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so don't throw it out.
- Give us a postcode starting DY13 9, or whatever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Sandy Lane.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Get the attendants to help you roll your car off the island if you're on a forecourt around Lower Heath, whether it is the Tesco or somewhere else. At home, the car stays exactly as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It doesn't blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same spot the pickup draws from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in The Walshes overnight and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — but it would be first through if the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm 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 some metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it is flushed out. Overnight, a car sitting around Lower Heath with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is only in your tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and this problem is thinned fuel. Blended into your diesel and left still, it's no threat at that stage; using your motor does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following fill, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Stourport-on-Severn or the centre of Lower Heath equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere around Worcestershire the vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Lower Heath?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts allow it. It usually happens at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside St Bartholomew's CofE VC Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up the car. Someone tips the container in outside their house, just off Britannia Gardens, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light by Old Rose & Crown, the car is topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new car, a company motor, or the spare vehicle of a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use least. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same slip, wherever in Lower Heath or the rest of Worcestershire you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lower Heath?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might appear, maybe part way across Lower Heath or returning from Britannia Gardens. Once you safely can, stop and turn everything off — without turning it on again to see. Every start pulls more of that through.
Lower Heath sits under 10 miles from the M5; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why crossing Lower Heath to park beside Canal Heritage Room and a drive of under 10 miles towards Worcester are such distinct jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Noticed soon, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Lower Heath: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a road near Danter's Treasure Island Amusement Park, a driveway, a layby or a filling station in Lower Heath, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether the motor has run, because those replies decide this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after your tank is emptied, on the spot. A full flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not clear away by itself. Testing your car follows last, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Lastly, the system is bled with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Hartlebury or on a driveway around Lower Heath. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Lower Heath, briefly
Lower Heath is a village in Worcestershire, situated on the banks of the River Severn at an elevation of 22 metres. Lower Heath lies near several notable areas, including Hartlebury Common and the village of Chadwick. Lower Heath has a population of around 682 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
Lower Heath and Worcestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls around Lower Heath also cover the spots around it, Hartlebury Common, Chadwick and Titton among them, and most of Worcestershire beyond, across the DY postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No moving is needed. In Lower Heath, a village, a van that comes to you fits: your vehicle is drained on the spot, be it on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Lower Heath?
Each job differs, so not one single price is fair. What changes the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Methodist School Hall.
That's why each call from Lower Heath starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. Their replies shrink the range down to a single figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your policy while we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle around Lower Heath, still?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Lower Heath or anywhere within Worcestershire.