AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in New Oscott? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in New Oscott. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in New Oscott: the first few minutes
Do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so don't throw it out.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting B73 5, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, so keep it off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance down Darnick Road.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
The staff on duty at any New Oscott filling station — the Tesco among them — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. On the drive, the vehicle stays exactly where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the very spot the intake sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Perry Common last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
After it is pulled in, the harm takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; and, because it eats at some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around New Oscott with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is only in the tank, it doesn't. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the BP, and this issue is diluted fuel. Blended into your diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat for now; running your engine is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the following fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of New Oscott or out in Kingstanding, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across West Midlands your car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around New Oscott: how it ends up there
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Twickenham Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills the car. After work, a container goes in on a driveway close to Jockey Road. Another version: darkness, the car park by The Beggars Bush, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
The least known cars get it the most — hire cars, new cars, fleet cars, and the other motor of a home with both fuels. An identical mistake, same first response — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be in New Oscott or the remainder of West Midlands.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in New Oscott, and your engine started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Princess Alice Park, say, or part way across New Oscott. When safe, pull over then switch everything off — without restarting to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M6, under 3 miles from New Oscott, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Hopping across New Oscott to the car park by Boldmere Methodist Church is one matter; driving towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it's spotted quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around New Oscott: what it takes
The car remains where it is, whether that's a street beside Boldmere Library, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in New Oscott, and our van travels to it. The job depends on three replies, which we ask for first — what went in, the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then the tank is drained where the vehicle stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains won't clear out on its own. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of the car. Engine not run? In that case expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. Then our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking space at Wylde Green or a driveway in New Oscott. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About New Oscott itself
New Oscott is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated approximately 5 miles north of Birmingham city centre. New Oscott sits at an elevation of around 144 metres, in a gently undulating landscape of suburban housing and local amenities. New Oscott is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby places including Oscott, Boldmere, and Short Heath. New Oscott is located about 102 miles northwest of London, making it a commuter-friendly location.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, New Oscott included
Over the B postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in New Oscott reach most of West Midlands as well, Oscott, Boldmere and Short Heath among them. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
A van that comes to you fits New Oscott, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, because our technicians empty it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around New Oscott?
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Catholic Church of St. Nicholas.
That's why each call from New Oscott starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. When those are answered, a range turns into one firm number.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay 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.
Still beside the car around New Oscott?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across New Oscott or wherever in West Midlands.