AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Newton? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. In Newton, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Newton, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- Remove your keys, which prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting B43 5, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: the motor stays off.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run the pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Even a short distance down Valley Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Newton forecourt — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Charlemont last night and has not been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of your tank, untouched — but it would be first through once your motor starts, before any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is cleared out. A vehicle left sitting around Newton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Yew Tree or the heart of Newton, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around West Midlands your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Newton
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Hamstead Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Broome Avenue. Another version: dim light, the car park by The Hamstead, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Hired vehicles, new motors, company cars, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles get it most. Wherever you're around Newton or the remainder of West Midlands, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Newton, and the motor started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Black Country Millennium Forest, say, or midway across Newton. No starting it again to check: pull over once safe, then turn everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M5, under a mile from Newton, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Newton to the car park by St Bernard's Church Hamstead is a very different job from a run towards Birmingham, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to flush once your engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it's spotted early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Newton
The car remains put, whether that's a street beside Blue Plaque: Francis Asbury Lived Here, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Newton, and our van comes to it. The work rests on three answers, which our engineers ask for first — what got in, the amount, and whether your engine has run.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. A careful flush counts far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not wash away on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, provided your engine hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking bay by Hamstead or a driveway around Newton, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we leave. As the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Newton
Newton is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated lakeside with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Newton sits at an elevation of 136 metres, approximately 4.6 miles northwest of Birmingham city centre. Newton is close to nearby places such as Hamstead, Grove Vale, and Great Barr, and is part of the larger Birmingham urban area. Newton has a population of around 6924 residents.
AdBlue drains around Newton and across West Midlands
AdBlue call-outs in Newton go to vans that cover the towns near it — Hamstead, Grove Vale as well as Great Barr — and much of West Midlands further out, throughout B postcodes. Guessing doesn't help by a border or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
No moving is needed. In Newton, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Newton?
Since the jobs differ, a flat price would not be fair. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Bishop Asbury Cottage.
Before any quote, never after, every enquiry from Newton begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
In Newton and still next to the vehicle?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Newton or anywhere within West Midlands.