Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mudd
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Mudd, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the engine has been run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Mudd: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring right where you are. Say a SK14 6 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Church Brow.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
At a forecourt in Mudd, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. On your own driveway, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the intake sucks from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Hillend last night and never switched on stays the simple one, provided nobody touches your key.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays in there. A vehicle left standing around Mudd with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. Blended into the diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless at that stage; running your motor does the damage.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Deposits and corrosion stay after the next fill, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, and so thinning it won't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Spout Green or the centre of Mudd equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere around Greater Manchester your car has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Mudd
It is not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A container bought while driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside Mottram CofE Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were taken off. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Dale View. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Mottram Wood.
The least known cars get it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle in a family with both fuel types. Anywhere around Greater Manchester, Mudd as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Mudd?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Via the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Great Wood or halfway across Mudd. Stop when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M67, under a mile from Mudd, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Hopping across Mudd to the car park by St. Michael and All Angels Parish Church is one matter; heading towards Manchester, under 10 miles away, is another, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the flushing where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. If it's caught soon, permanent damage is very unusual.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Mudd
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Mudd: a side street close to Mottram Cricket Club, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, and our technicians get first — what got in, the quantity, and if the engine has run.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed if it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when your motor has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, your system is primed with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, by Broadbottom or on a driveway around Mudd. The test before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Mudd
Mudd is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Greater Manchester, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 2401 residents. Mudd sits at an elevation of 232 metres, approximately 9.8 miles from Manchester and 156.1 miles from London. Mudd is located near other local places such as Mottram in Longdendale and Warhill.
Mudd and Greater Manchester: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Mudd also cover the locations around it, Mottram in Longdendale, Warhill and The Hague among them, and most of Greater Manchester beyond, across the SK postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Mudd, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Mudd: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat figure would be honest, since every job differs. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Statue of L.S. Lowry.
Before a quote, never after, each enquiry from Mudd begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. Their answers shrink the range down to a single figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Next to the vehicle in Mudd, still?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Mudd or anywhere within Greater Manchester.