AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Padiham? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Padiham, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Padiham
Do these:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BB12 8, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down Darwen Street.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The staff working at any Padiham forecourt — the Valero included — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. From a separate tank it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Altham last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What remains when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting in Padiham. Only in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. Mixed through the diesel and sitting still, it's no threat for now; running your engine does the harm.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so thinning it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Rose Grove or the centre of Padiham alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Lancashire your car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Padiham: how it ends up there
Many motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two may appear the same. Nobody means it. A container picked up while heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Padiham St Leonard's Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary School. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Mill Street. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Hand & Shuttle, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Hired motors, brand-new cars, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. An identical slip, same first response — keep it off — wherever you are around Padiham or the rest of Lancashire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Padiham?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Padiham Memorial Park or halfway across Padiham. No starting it again to test: stop once it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Padiham lies under 3 miles from the M65; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Padiham to the car park by St Leonard's is a very different job from a run towards Preston, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the motor has been run. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed quickly.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Padiham: what it takes
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Padiham: a side street near Boyes, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, so first our engineers ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, and whether your motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is drained, right there. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of the vehicle follows at the end, once clean diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, if the motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. You drive off as soon as we have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Padiham or in a space at Hapton. Before we leave, our technicians confirm it's running properly with clean diesel in. 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 you get both afterwards.
About Padiham, for a moment
Padiham is a town in Lancashire, situated on the banks of the River Calder at an elevation of around 81 metres. Padiham lies near the towns of Habergham, Simonstone, and Hapton, and is approximately 16 miles from Preston. Padiham has a population of around 11369 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Padiham is located in the North West region of England, about 183 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Padiham and across Lancashire
Habergham, Simonstone and Hapton are among the places near Padiham that the same vans reach, together with much of Lancashire beyond, throughout the BB postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
Padiham is a riverside town, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your 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.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Padiham: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, and so not one fixed quote is fair. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind Padiham Pool.
That is why each call from Padiham starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. With those replies, the range shrinks to one fixed figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the car in Padiham?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Padiham or wherever in Lancashire, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran.