AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Oldfield Park? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Oldfield Park. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Oldfield Park, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take your keys out.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Ring right where you are. Say a BA2 3 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance down King Edward Road.
- Draining the tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle off the island if you're at a forecourt around Oldfield Park, whether it's the Sainsbury's or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its supply from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in The Oval overnight and left unstarted is the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when your engine runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. A car left sitting around Oldfield Park with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. No damage is done as long as it sits put, blended into the diesel — only when your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your vehicle sits in Moorlands or the heart of Oldfield Park, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Somerset your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Oldfield Park
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside St John's Catholic Primary School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Canterbury Road. Or someone new to that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Moorfields Inn.
Rented motors, new motors, fleet cars, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. Wherever you're around Oldfield Park or the rest of Somerset, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Oldfield Park?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Shaftesbury Road Memorial Gardens, or midway across Oldfield Park, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or stall. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the car off rather than restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Oldfield Park sits under 10 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Oldfield Park to the car park by St Bart's is a very different job from a run towards Bath, under a mile away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been started. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Oldfield Park
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Oldfield Park: a side street close to Church of Our Lady & St Alphege, Bath, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three answers, and we get first — what was put in, the amount, and if your motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since residue will not flush out by itself. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to prime your system on clean diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Oldfield Park or in a space outside the nearest station. We make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel before leaving. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Oldfield Park
Oldfield Park is a suburban area situated on the River Avon in Somerset, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Oldfield Park lies close to the city of Bath, with which it is closely associated, and is characterized by its relatively low elevation of 31 metres above sea level. Oldfield Park is bordered by other nearby places, including Westmoreland, East Twerton, and South Twerton, and is home to a population of approximately 11,295 people.
AdBlue drains in Oldfield Park and across Somerset
Throughout the BA postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Oldfield Park reach much of Somerset as well, Westmoreland, East Twerton and South Twerton among them. Assuming won't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
A van that comes to you fits Oldfield Park, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since we empty it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Oldfield Park?
Since each callouts vary, a flat figure would not be fair. Three things change the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Hillside Hall.
That's why every call from Oldfield Park starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. When they are known, a range turns into a single firm number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
In Oldfield Park and still next to the car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Oldfield Park or anywhere in Somerset.