AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Town? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and your ignition as well. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system pulls it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully purged where the car sits around Old Town. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Old Town: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so do not bin it away.
- Ring just where you are. Say a CV37 6 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Don't do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way along College Street.
- Emptying that tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
Moving your car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Old Town forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. On your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor emits. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to go that way.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its supply from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Clopton yesterday and never started remains the simple case, as long as nobody turns your key.
Once it is drawn in, the harm comes in two forms. It eats at some metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it touches until it is cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny channels. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Old Town leaves things worse. Inside that tank alone, time costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that's the main issue. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's inside that tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Upper Milcote or the middle of Old Town.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever across Warwickshire your car has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Old Town?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's not the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Hurrying, outside Stratford-Upon-Avon Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. Close to Southern Lane, a driver tips a bottle in at home in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light by The Bull, your vehicle is topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
Rented vehicles, new motors, fleet cars, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Leave it off: that is the first response to the same mistake, anywhere in Old Town or the remainder of Warwickshire you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Old Town?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
Maybe coming back from Garden of Remembrance, or part way across Old Town, your engine may run rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or cut out. No restarting to check: stop when safe, then switch it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Old Town sits under 10 miles from the M40; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so driving for Coventry, under 25 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Old Town to the car park by War Memorial. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's caught early.
Old Town: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that's a street beside Hall's Croft, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Old Town, and our van comes to it. Three replies shape the work, and so first our technicians ask which fluid was put in, about the amount, and if your motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since residue will not wash out unaided. After that, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a check of the vehicle. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking bay by Stratford-upon-Avon or a drive in Old Town, that is where our technicians start it and you drive off. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Old Town and where it is
Old Town is a suburban area in Warwickshire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 45 metres. Old Town is located near several notable places, including Stratford-upon-Avon, Bridge Town, and Shottery, and is approximately 17.4 miles from Coventry. Old Town has a population of around 4137 people and features predominantly terraced housing. Old Town is also within commuting distance to larger cities, being around 82.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Warwickshire, Old Town included
Stratford-upon-Avon, Bridge Town and Shottery are among the towns near Old Town that the same vans reach, along with most of Warwickshire further out, over the CV postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Old Town is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Old Town: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because each jobs differ, a single figure wouldn't be honest. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Holy Trinity Parish Centre.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Old Town begins by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of a quote. Given those replies, the range shrinks to one firm figure.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Still alongside your car around Old Town?
Then, touch nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Old Town or anywhere within Warwickshire.