Pennylands: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only comes once the pump starts drawing it. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Pennylands. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pennylands: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting WN8 8, or whatever street is nearest, and our van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down High Street.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Pennylands, whether it is the BP or elsewhere. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A motor topped up on a drive in White Moss overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when the motor turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a car sitting in Pennylands with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's only in that tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
A problem of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. Mixed into the diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless at that stage; using your motor does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Skelmersdale or the middle of Pennylands.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere across Lancashire the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
Pennylands: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Trinity Church of England/Methodist School the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Whitestock. Or someone new to that flap refills the car in dim light, parked in the car park outside Derby Arms.
It comes up most in a rental, a new motor, a company motor, or the other car in a family with one of each fuel types — the cars people know the least. Wherever you're in Pennylands or the rest of Lancashire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Pennylands?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It has been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any might show up, perhaps part way across Pennylands or coming back from Kiln Lane Playing Fields. Once safe, pull over and turn everything off — without restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M58, under a mile from Pennylands, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system. That is why crossing Pennylands to park near Greenhill Community Hub and a drive of under 15 miles for Liverpool are very different jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Noticed early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Pennylands?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Pennylands: a side street near St Paul's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the work, so first we ask what was put in, roughly the amount, and whether the engine has run.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. A test of the vehicle follows last, after clean diesel is added and the filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, replaced. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, if your engine has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the last step. Whether it is a parking space by Rainford or a driveway around Pennylands, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. Before we leave, we make sure it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Pennylands itself
Pennylands is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated inland at an elevation of 66 metres, approximately 12 miles from Liverpool. Pennylands forms part of the larger urban landscape of the North West, with nearby places including Chapel House, West Gillibrands, and East Gillibrands. Pennylands has a population of around 5173 people, predominantly residing in terraced housing.
AdBlue drains around Pennylands and across Lancashire
AdBlue jobs around Pennylands are passed to teams that cover the towns near it — Chapel House, West Gillibrands as well as East Gillibrands — and most of Lancashire beyond, across WN postcodes. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Anywhere your car sits — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Pennylands, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Pennylands?
Not one flat price could be fair, because every job differs. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Sandy Lane Centre.
What went in, how much, and if it ran: every Pennylands call begins by asking exactly that, ahead of a figure, not after. Their replies shrink the range right down to one figure.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody 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 policy: many include misfuelling.
In Pennylands and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Pennylands or anywhere in Lancashire, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.