AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Lower Soundwell? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep your engine off and keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts when your pump begins drawing it. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the vehicle stands in Lower Soundwell. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Lower Soundwell, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call just where you are. Quote a BS15 4 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so keep it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is pointless.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down Peartree Lane.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
The attendants on duty at any Lower Soundwell filling station — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Hopewell Hill 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 drawn it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, working on any part it reaches till it is cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow channels. A vehicle left standing in Lower Soundwell with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that is the whole problem. No harm comes while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle is in Siston Common or the heart of Lower Soundwell, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just in the tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere your car has come to rest across Gloucestershire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Lower Soundwell
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It mostly happens at home, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The top-up is rushed outside Kings' Forest Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Rudge Close. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Jolly Cobbler.
It comes up most in a rental, a new car, a company car, or the spare car of a home with one of each fuels — the cars people know the least. Anywhere in Gloucestershire, Lower Soundwell included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lower Soundwell?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Via the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Siston Common, perhaps, or midway across Lower Soundwell. No restarting to check: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M4, under 3 miles from Lower Soundwell, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Bristol, under 5 miles away, gives a far bigger job than hopping across Lower Soundwell to the car park by Wesley Made-For-Ever. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has ended up, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it's noticed quickly.
Lower Soundwell: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a road beside Kingswood Army Cadet Force, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Lower Soundwell, and our van travels to it. The job rests on three answers, which our engineers ask for before all else — what was put in, the quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after your tank is emptied, right there. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, provided your motor has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
The last step is to prime your system on new diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started the car, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Lower Soundwell or in a bay by Stapleton Road. The test before we go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Lower Soundwell, for a moment
Lower Soundwell is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 72 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Lower Soundwell lies close to the city of Bristol, approximately 4.8 miles away, and is part of the larger urban area surrounding the city. Lower Soundwell has a population of around 8074 residents, living in a mix of old and new housing stock. Lower Soundwell is near other local places, including Soundwell and Upper Soundwell.
AdBlue drains across Lower Soundwell and Gloucestershire
AdBlue call-outs around Lower Soundwell are passed to teams that serve the towns near it — Soundwell, Upper Soundwell plus New Cheltenham — and much of Gloucestershire further out, across BS postcodes. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you are by a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
Lower Soundwell 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, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Lower Soundwell?
There is no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind St Stephen's Church.
Before any figure, never afterwards, every call from Lower Soundwell begins with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and if the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
The price is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
In Lower Soundwell and still alongside the car?
Then, touch nothing — that is the best move there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Lower Soundwell or anywhere within Gloucestershire.