Palfrey: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your motor off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. In Palfrey, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Palfrey: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Take your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting WS1 4, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: your motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment your ignition goes on, so leave it off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Weston Close.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Palfrey forecourt you are on, the the nearest petrol station or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the very spot the pickup sucks from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in The Delves overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Once it's drawn in, the harm takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny passages; and, because it eats at some metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning in Palfrey makes it worse. In the tank alone, waiting does nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the main fault. No harm is done as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot simply be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the following tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Palfrey or out in Pleck, does more harm than almost any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across West Midlands the vehicle is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Palfrey?
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It usually happens at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside Whitehall Nursery and Infant Academy, after your dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off West Bromwich Road. One more pattern: dim light, a pub car park by The Fullbrook Lounge & Sports Bar, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the other car of a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. An identical mistake, same first response — keep it switched off — wherever you are around Palfrey or the rest of West Midlands.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Palfrey?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It's been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Palfrey Park, say, or part way across Palfrey. When you safely can, pull over then turn it off — without turning it on again to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M6, under a mile from Palfrey, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system, so driving towards Wolverhampton, under 10 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Palfrey to the car park by Palfrey & Caldmore Senior Citizens Club. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. If it's spotted soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Palfrey: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped in Palfrey — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside The Palfrey Horse — our van travels to your car. The work depends on three replies, which our technicians get before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if your motor has turned over.
Then the tank is emptied where your car waits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers arrive, provided your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Lastly, your system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking space at Bescot Stadium or a driveway around Palfrey, that is where our technicians fire it up and you head off. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before we leave. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Palfrey, for a moment
Palfrey is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Tame and close to the city of Wolverhampton. Palfrey sits at an elevation of around 130 metres, with terraced housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Palfrey is located near several other suburban areas, including Caldmore and New Mills, and is about 6 miles from Wolverhampton city centre.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Palfrey included
Over the WS postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs in Palfrey serve much of West Midlands as well, Caldmore, New Mills and Bescot included. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Anywhere the car stands — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — we drain it there, with no need to take it to us; that suits Palfrey, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Palfrey: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs differ, a single price would not be honest. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Guru Nanak Sikh Temple.
Ahead of a figure, never afterwards, each enquiry from Palfrey begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and if it ran. With those replies, a range narrows to a single firm number.
You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still beside the vehicle around Palfrey?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful move there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran is everything our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout West Midlands, Palfrey included.