Melksham: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Melksham. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Melksham, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting SN12 6, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: the engine stays off.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance down Church Street.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you move your car away from the island if you're at a forecourt in Melksham, whether it is the Sainsbury or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A car topped up on a drive in Berryfield yesterday evening and not started since is the simple case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once your engine turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches till it's cleared from the system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow channels. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning in Melksham makes things worse. Inside that tank only, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Texaco, and this problem is thinned fuel. No harm comes while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the engine works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, so thinning it can't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Outmarsh or the heart of Melksham equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits just in the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, wherever the car has stopped around Wiltshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Melksham
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. 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.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill gets rushed outside The Manor CofE VC Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Bank Street. Else, after dark by The Hiding Place, your car gets topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new cars, fleet cars, or the spare car in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it the most. Wherever you are in Melksham or the rest of Wiltshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Melksham?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Perhaps returning from Conigre Mead, or midway across Melksham, the motor may go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or stall. When safe, pull over then turn it off — with no restarting to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the M4, under 10 miles from Melksham, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Melksham to the car park by Melksham War Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Bath, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to rinse out once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Long-term damage is very unusual when it's spotted quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Melksham
Anywhere it has come to rest around Melksham — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside St. Michael and All Angels — our van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if your motor has run, since those answers decide the work.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the motor has not run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, at the nearest station or on a drive in Melksham. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Melksham, for a moment
Melksham is a town in Wiltshire, situated on the banks of the River Avon, with Melksham Forest nearby. Melksham has a population of around 17298 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Melksham sits at an elevation of 42 metres, close to the city of Bath and approximately 87 miles from London. Melksham is also near other local areas, including The Spa and Bowerhill.
AdBlue drains across Wiltshire, Melksham included
AdBlue jobs around Melksham go to teams that cover the places around it — Melksham Forest, The Spa as well as Bowerhill — and much of Wiltshire beyond, across SN postcodes. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Melksham is a riverside town, and a call-out 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 stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Melksham
Not one single figure could be honest, because each job is different. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Melksham Community Campus.
With that reason, each call from Melksham begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of a figure. With them, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Our quote is given on the call, before anyone sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Melksham: still alongside your car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Melksham or anywhere in Wiltshire, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.