AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Newtown? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your engine. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble starts once it's sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Newtown. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Newtown: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops someone turning the power on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Call just where you are. Quote a WA6 7 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: the motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Weaver Road.
- Draining the tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
The staff on duty at any Newtown filling station — the Texaco included — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. At home, your car stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is how a car filled in Bradley yesterday and never started remains the simple one, as long as no one turns the key.
After it's pulled in, the damage takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it till morning in Newtown leaves things worse. In the tank alone, time costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and the issue is diluted fuel. No damage comes while it stays unused, blended into your diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the vehicle is in Clifton or the centre of Newtown, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere across Cheshire your car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
Newtown: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap, and after dark the two can look identical. Nobody means it. Mostly it's never the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Frodsham Manor House Primary School the refill is rushed. Close to Volunteer Street, someone pours a container in at home in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light outside Red Lion, your car gets topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, brand-new motors, fleet vehicles, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least known cars get it the most. Same mistake, an identical first response — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be around Newtown or the remainder of Cheshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Newtown?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Hob Hey Wood, or midway across Newtown, the engine might run rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or stall. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M56, under a mile from Newtown, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Newtown to park near Frodsham Water Sports Centre and a drive of under 15 miles towards Chester are such separate jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Noticed soon, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Newtown: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest in Newtown — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Frodsham Community Centre — the van comes to the car. Three replies shape the work, so before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly the amount, and if the motor has turned over.
Next, draining your tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes last. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Newtown or in a bay by Frodsham. Our engineers confirm it runs correctly on new diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Newtown itself
Newtown is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated near the coast and approximately 10.5 miles from Chester. Newtown has a relatively low elevation of 23 metres and is surrounded by nearby places such as Frodsham, Overton, and Marsh Green. Newtown is characterised by its predominant semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region.
AdBlue drains across Newtown and Cheshire
Over the WA postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Newtown serve most of Cheshire as well, Frodsham, Overton and Marsh Green among them. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
Wherever your vehicle sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Newtown, a new town, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Newtown: the cost of fixing it
Because the jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be honest. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind St Luke's.
What was put in, how much, plus if the engine ran: every Newtown call opens with precisely that, before any figure, never after. With those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed number.
The price is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Still beside the car around Newtown?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Newtown or anywhere in Cheshire.