Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Poolway
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly cleaned where the car stands around Poolway. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Poolway, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting GL16 8, or just the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the spot.
Don't:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so leave the car off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's pointless.
- Even a short way down Wynols Hill Lane is too far to drive it.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Rolling your vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Poolway forecourt you are on, the Texaco or any other. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine lets out. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Broadwell yesterday and not started stays the simple one, as long as no one touches the key.
Once it's pulled in, the harm takes two forms. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it reaches till it's cleared from your system. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in tiny passages. Pipes holding AdBlue mean damage overnight for a car parked in Poolway. Just inside that tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Central Garage, and the problem is diluted fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Coalway or the middle of Poolway.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Gloucestershire your car has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Poolway
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St John's C of E Academy the top-up is hurried. Close to Sarnedy Road, someone pours a bottle in at home after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Dog House, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar cars see it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet cars, and the spare motor in a home with both fuels. Wherever around Gloucestershire, Poolway as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Poolway, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Via your filter, along the pipework, and — given any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps part way across Poolway or coming back from Bells Field Recreation Area. When you safely can, pull over and turn it off — without restarting to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M50, under 10 miles from Poolway, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Poolway to park near Mount of Olives and a drive of under 25 miles for Gloucester are such separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once your engine has been started, and we do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it is spotted early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Poolway?
Wherever it has come to rest in Poolway — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by Mushet Brothers Memorial — our van comes to your car. The job depends on three answers, and our technicians ask for first — what got in, the quantity, and whether the motor has turned over.
Then that tank is drained where the car sits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking bay outside Lydney or a drive in Poolway, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. Our engineers make sure it runs properly on new diesel before leaving. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Poolway and where it is
Poolway is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated inland at an elevation of 186 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Poolway lies near the towns of Coleford and the city of Gloucester, and is also close to smaller settlements like Bakers Hill and High Nash. Poolway is part of the wider South West region of England, and is approximately 108 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Poolway and Gloucestershire
Coleford, Bakers Hill and High Nash are among the places near Poolway that the same teams reach, along with much of Gloucestershire beyond, over the GL postcode area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Poolway is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Poolway: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open driveway is easier for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind Studio Cinema.
That's why each call from Poolway starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the quote on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still beside the vehicle in Poolway?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran is all we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Gloucestershire, Poolway too.