AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Orrell Park? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts till the motor sucks it round. In Orrell Park, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Orrell Park
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not bin it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting L9 8, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Endborne Road.
- Emptying the tank on your own beside the road is not one to try.
On a forecourt around Orrell Park, whether it's the Asda or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits beneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Orrell yesterday and not switched on remains the straightforward case, provided nobody touches the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks certain metals used in fuel components, attacking any part it touches till it is removed completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. Overnight, a car parked in Orrell Park with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it's only in your tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the BP, and this problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Bootle or the middle of Orrell Park.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever around Merseyside the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Orrell Park: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and in dim light the two may appear the same. Nobody intends it. A container picked up when heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Rice Lane Primary School and Nursery, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. A driver tips the container in outside their house, right off Eccleston Road, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Raven.
Rented vehicles, new motors, company cars, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least known cars see it most. Wherever around Merseyside, Orrell Park included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Orrell Park?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. It's been pulled through the filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might appear, perhaps midway across Orrell Park or coming back from Devonfield Gardens. No restarting to check: stop once safe, then turn it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M57, under 3 miles from Orrell Park, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Orrell Park to the car park by Roman Catholic Church Of The Blessed Sacrament is a very different job from a run towards Liverpool, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. If it's spotted early, lasting damage is very rare.
Orrell Park: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a street near St John the Evangelist, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Orrell Park, and our van comes to it. Three answers decide the work, and so before anything else we ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, plus whether the engine has run.
Then that tank is emptied where your car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. You set off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Orrell Park or in a bay at the nearest station. It is tested on clean diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we go. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Orrell Park, for a moment
Orrell Park is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the coast and approximately 3.8 miles from Liverpool. Orrell Park has a relatively low elevation of around 40 metres and is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing. Orrell Park is close to several nearby parks, including Victoria Park and Warbreck Park, and is also near Hartleys Village. Orrell Park is home to a population of around 11376 people.
AdBlue drains in Orrell Park and across Merseyside
Victoria Park, Warbreck Park and Hartleys Village are among the towns around Orrell Park that the same vans serve, together with much of Merseyside beyond, throughout the L postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
Orrell Park is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Orrell Park: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, so no fixed quote is fair. What shifts the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Walton Vale Community Shop.
Before any quote, not afterwards, every call from Orrell Park opens with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and if it ran. Their replies narrow the range right down to a single number.
You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Still beside the vehicle in Orrell Park?
In that case, do nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Merseyside, Orrell Park too.