Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marsh
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your motor off then keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble begins once it is pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits in Marsh. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Marsh: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the amount, and so do not throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BD19 5, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it's wasted.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Greenside.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll your vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Marsh, whether it's the Tesco or elsewhere. At home, the vehicle stays just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to travel that way.
It does not combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in West End last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight in Marsh makes things worse. In the tank alone, waiting does nothing. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the EG On the Move and you have a problem of thin fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in that tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Moorbottom or the middle of Marsh.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever around West Yorkshire your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Marsh: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is not the forecourt: someone buys a container driving home and tips it in at home.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Howard Park Community School. Close to Syke Fold Grange, a driver pours a container in at home after work. Or someone new to that flap refills the car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The George Hotel.
It happens most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Marsh or the rest of West Yorkshire, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Marsh?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been pulled through your filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may show up, perhaps midway across Marsh or coming back from Cleckheaton Memorial Park. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Marsh lies under a mile from the M62; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Marsh to the car park by St. Paul Of The Cross is a very different job from a run towards Bradford, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it is caught quickly.
Marsh: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest around Marsh — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road beside Central Methodist Church — our van comes to the car. Three replies shape the job, so first we ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, and if the engine has turned over.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the last step. Starting the car comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Low Moor or on a drive in Marsh. It is checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs properly before our engineers head off. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Marsh itself
Marsh is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 80 metres. Marsh lies approximately 5 miles from Bradford and is near other local places such as Cleckheaton, Spen, and Rawfolds. Marsh has a population of around 5453 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Marsh is located about 166.8 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Marsh and West Yorkshire
Cleckheaton, Spen and Rawfolds are among the places around Marsh that the same vans serve, along with much of West Yorkshire further out, throughout the BD postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No moving is needed. In Marsh, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Marsh?
Because the jobs differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open drive is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Cleckheaton Farmers' Market.
Before a quote, not afterwards, each enquiry from Marsh begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus if it ran. Those answers shrink the range down to one figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Marsh and still next to the car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout West Yorkshire, Marsh too.