AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Morton? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it is sucked through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't blend with diesel. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Morton. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Morton
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, which stops someone turning the power on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BS35 1, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Moving your car just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch up Charles Close is too far to drive the car.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the car off the island if you're on a forecourt in Morton, whether it's the Thornbury Motors or somewhere else. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the gas. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was meant to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same spot the pickup draws from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Sibland overnight and not started since counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once the engine turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Morton leaves things worse. In your tank alone, time does nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. Mixed into the diesel and sitting still, it's no threat at that stage; using the motor is the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the next tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Morton or out in Thornbury, costs more than almost any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around Gloucestershire the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Morton: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Manorbrook Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills your car. Near Swallow Park, a driver tips a container in on the drive after work. One more version: dim light, a pub car park by The Anchor, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet motor, or the spare motor in a family with both fuels — the cars people use least. Leave it off: that's the first step to an identical slip, anywhere in Morton or the rest of Gloucestershire you are.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Morton?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Perhaps returning from Morton Meadows, or part way across Morton, the engine may run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, flash your dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M5, under 3 miles from Morton, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why a hop across Morton to park beside St Mary's Church Hall and a drive of under 15 miles towards Bristol are very different jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been run. Permanent damage is very rare if it's spotted soon.
Morton: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Morton: a side street close to The Chantry, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, and our engineers ask for first — what got in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is drained, right there. Residue from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. After that, the filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of the vehicle. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. Starting the car comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, by Yate or on a driveway in Morton. It is tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our technicians go. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Morton, for a moment
Morton is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and approximately 11.9 miles from Bristol. Morton occupies a relatively low-lying position at around 36 metres above sea level, with nearby settlements including Upper Morton, Crossways, and Lower Morton. Morton has a population of around 5262 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Gloucestershire, Morton included
Upper Morton, Crossways and Lower Morton are among the towns around Morton that the same teams serve, along with most of Gloucestershire beyond, throughout the BS postcode area. Phone and check instead of guessing if you are by a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
A mobile service suits Morton, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the car to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Morton: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so no single quote is fair. Three things shift the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Kingdom Hall.
That's why every call from Morton starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Morton: still next to your car?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Morton or wherever within Gloucestershire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.