Marslands: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until your engine pulls it through. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Marslands. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Marslands, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting OL3 5, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Switching your key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way along Standedge Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
The attendants on duty at any Marslands filling station — the Gulf included — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays separate instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the very place the intake draws from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Holly Grove overnight and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it reaches till it's removed from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow channels. A vehicle left standing in Marslands 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: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and this problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is inside that tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in Dobcross or the heart of Marslands, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere in Greater Manchester your vehicle sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Marslands
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver buys a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Chad's Church of England Primary School the top-up is rushed. Near Huddersfield Road, a driver tips a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Else, after dark outside The Navigation Inn, the vehicle is refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the other car in a home with one of each fuels — the cars drivers know the least. An identical slip, same first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Marslands or the rest of Greater Manchester.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Marslands?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been sucked through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Perhaps returning from Diggle Park, or midway across Marslands, the engine may run rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or stall. When safe, stop then turn everything off — without restarting to test. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M62, under 5 miles from Marslands, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, and so heading towards Manchester, under 15 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Marslands to the car park by Holy Trinity. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where your car has stopped. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Marslands?
Anywhere it has stopped in Marslands — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road beside St Chad — the van travels to your vehicle. Before anything else we ask what went in, about how much, and if your motor has been run, because those answers settle the work.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not clear out by itself. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Not run? Then count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay by Greenfield or a driveway around Marslands, that is where our technicians start it and you head off. It's tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers head off. 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 at the end.
About Marslands itself
Marslands is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the riverside and characterised by its terraced housing. Marslands sits at an elevation of 187 metres, approximately 11 miles from Manchester, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Weakey, Diggle, and Woolroad. Marslands is home to around 1103 residents and forms part of the wider Manchester urban area.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Marslands included
AdBlue call-outs in Marslands are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Weakey, Diggle plus Woolroad — and most of Greater Manchester beyond, across OL postcodes. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No moving is needed. In Marslands, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Marslands: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, and so not one single quote is fair. What moves the cost is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Thomas Telford.
Before a figure, never afterwards, every enquiry from Marslands opens with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus whether it ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. As our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Beside the vehicle around Marslands, still?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best move open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are all we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Greater Manchester, Marslands included.