AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in North Malvern? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully purged where your car stands in North Malvern. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, North Malvern: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting WR14 1, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Even a short way down Queen's Road is too far to drive the car.
- Draining the tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
Moving the car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever North Malvern forecourt you're on, the Texaco or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup draws its fuel from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is why a car topped up in West Malvern yesterday and not started stays the simple case, as long as nobody turns your key.
Once it is 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 is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around North Malvern with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's just inside your tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Gulf, and the problem is thinned fuel. Mixed into the diesel and left still, it's harmless for now; using the engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether your car is in Great Malvern or the heart of North Malvern, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in Worcestershire your car has stopped.
North Malvern: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Many cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Joseph's Catholic Primary School the top-up is rushed. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive near Uplands Drive. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Prince of Wales, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the other vehicle in a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles people know least. Anywhere across Worcestershire, North Malvern as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in North Malvern?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Tank Clock or halfway across North Malvern. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, under 10 miles from North Malvern, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further into your system. That is why a hop across North Malvern to park beside St Joseph's Catholic Church and a drive of under 10 miles towards Worcester are very different jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to flush once the engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has stopped. If it's spotted early, permanent damage is very unusual.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around North Malvern
Anywhere it has come to rest in North Malvern — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by The Salvation Army — our van comes to your vehicle. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has been run, since those answers settle the work.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. A full flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't clear away on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, the system is primed with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking bay at Malvern Link or a driveway around North Malvern, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Before we leave, we check it is running correctly with clean diesel in. Since the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About North Malvern itself
North Malvern is a suburban area located in Worcestershire, England, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. North Malvern sits at an elevation of 107 metres, approximately 6.6 miles west of Worcester, and is part of the larger Malvern area. North Malvern is close to nearby places such as Link Top, Upper Howsell, and Malvern Link, and is about 103.3 miles west of London. North Malvern has a population of around 4992 people.
AdBlue drains across North Malvern and Worcestershire
Link Top, Upper Howsell and Malvern Link are among the places around North Malvern that the same teams reach, along with much of Worcestershire beyond, throughout the WR postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
No towing is needed. In North Malvern, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the car is drained where it stands, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in North Malvern
Since each callouts differ, a single price wouldn't be honest. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the car, since an open driveway is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight space behind Church of the Ascension.
Before any figure, never afterwards, every call from North Malvern opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, and if it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still next to the vehicle in North Malvern?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across North Malvern or anywhere in Worcestershire.