AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pipe Ridware? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep the ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump begins pulling it. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle stands around Pipe Ridware. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Pipe Ridware: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Ring right where you are. Say a WS15 3 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Moving your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself starts the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it is pointless.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Pipe Wood Lane.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
On a forecourt around Pipe Ridware, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. At home, your car remains just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is why a car filled in Mavesyn Ridware yesterday and never started remains the straightforward one, as long as nobody turns the key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. Overnight, a car sitting around Pipe Ridware with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is only in the tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that's the whole problem. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Rake End or the middle of Pipe Ridware.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside the tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Staffordshire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Pipe Ridware?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Henry Chadwick Primary School. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Pipe Lane. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Chadwick Arms, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new car, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers use the least. Wherever you're in Pipe Ridware or the rest of Staffordshire, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pipe Ridware?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may see your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from New Plantation or halfway across Pipe Ridware. No restarting to check: stop when it is safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Pipe Ridware sits under 10 miles from the M6 Toll; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
A quick hop across Pipe Ridware to the car park by Mavesyn Ridware Village Hall is one thing; driving for Lichfield, under 10 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed early.
Pipe Ridware: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Pipe Ridware: a side street near Church of St Nicholas, Mavesyn Ridware, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, and so before anything else we ask what got in, roughly what quantity, and whether your engine has turned over.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue won't flush out unaided. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking space outside Rugeley Trent Valley or a driveway around Pipe Ridware, that is where we fire it up and you head off. Before leaving, our engineers make sure it is running properly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Pipe Ridware itself
Pipe Ridware is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Staffordshire, with a low elevation of around 67 metres. Pipe Ridware lies near the city of Lichfield, approximately 5.4 miles away, and is part of a wider area that includes nearby Nethertown, Hill Ridware, and Hamstall Ridware. Pipe Ridware has a population of around 584 people and predominantly features detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Pipe Ridware and across Staffordshire
AdBlue call-outs in Pipe Ridware go to teams that serve the towns near it — Nethertown, Hill Ridware plus Hamstall Ridware — and most of Staffordshire further out, across WS postcodes. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
No towing is needed. In Pipe Ridware, a rural hamlet, a van that comes to you fits: your vehicle is drained where it stands, be it in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Pipe Ridware?
No single figure would be fair, because each job differs. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind St Michael & All Angels.
Ahead of a figure, never after, every call from Pipe Ridware opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus if the engine ran. Their answers shrink a range right down to a single figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside your car in Pipe Ridware?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran is all we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Staffordshire, Pipe Ridware too.