Page Moss: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the motor off and keep the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens till your engine pulls it through. In Page Moss, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Page Moss: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what volume? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and we can see.
- Give us a postcode starting L36 4, or whichever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Moving the car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Westwick Place.
- Draining that tank on your own beside the road isn't worth trying.
The staff on duty at any Page Moss forecourt — the Shell included — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It doesn't combine. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same spot the pickup draws from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, which is why a car topped up in Dovecot last night and never switched on remains the straightforward one, as long as nobody touches the key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Lines holding AdBlue spell damage by morning for a vehicle sitting in Page Moss. Only in the tank, it stays stable. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Asda, and this issue is diluted fuel. No damage is done as long as it stays put, blended into the diesel — only when your motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Bowring Park or the heart of Page Moss alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Merseyside your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Page Moss
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — can look the same. No one means it; many layouts invite it. Mostly it's never the filling station: someone picks up a container driving home and tips it in at home.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Roby Park Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the children were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Pickering Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Derby Lodge, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet car, or the other car of a home with both fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. An identical slip, an identical first response — leave it off — anywhere you are in Page Moss or the remainder of Merseyside.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Page Moss?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running — into the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Maybe returning from Roby Field, or part way across Page Moss, the engine might go lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Page Moss sits under a mile from the M62; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Hopping across Page Moss to the car park by Roby Community Centre is one thing; heading for Liverpool, under 5 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the motor has run, and we do all of it where the car has stopped. When it is noticed soon, long-term damage is very rare.
Page Moss: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Page Moss: a side street near St Bartholomew's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run, since those answers determine the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned right through since residue will not wash out unaided. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced if it must be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, if your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, at Roby or on a driveway in Page Moss. It is tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Page Moss, for a moment
Page Moss is a suburban area located inland in Merseyside, with a relatively low elevation of 34 metres. Page Moss sits near the city of Liverpool, approximately 4.7 miles away, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Huyton Farm and Roby. Page Moss has a population of around 9555 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing. Page Moss is situated in the North West region of England, about 175 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Page Moss and across Merseyside
AdBlue jobs around Page Moss go to teams that serve the places near it — Huyton Farm, Roby plus Horn Smithies — and most of Merseyside beyond, throughout L postcodes. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A mobile service fits Page Moss, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Page Moss: the cost of fixing it
Since the callouts vary, a flat price would not be fair. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight spot behind Trinity Church.
Before any quote, not after, each enquiry from Page Moss opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether it ran. Their replies shrink the range down to one number.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Page Moss and still next to your car?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Page Moss or anywhere around Merseyside.