AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Priors Norton? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes when your pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Priors Norton, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the engine has been run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Priors Norton, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so do not throw it away.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting GL2 9, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch along Church Lane is too far to drive it.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
Get the attendants to help you move the vehicle away from the island if you are at a forecourt around Priors Norton, whether it's the Texaco or somewhere else. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. Nothing inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
It doesn't combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a driveway in Barrow yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once the motor turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
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 is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage overnight for a car parked around Priors Norton. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and this problem is thinned fuel. No harm is done as long as it stays put, blended into the diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue separates again out of the diesel, and so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Bishops Norton or the centre of Priors Norton equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever in Gloucestershire your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Priors Norton: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — may appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs invite it. Mostly it's never the filling station: someone picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Norton Church of England Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up your car. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a drive near Marlpit Lane. One more pattern: dim light, the car park by New Dawn Inn, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, same first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Priors Norton or the rest of Gloucestershire.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Priors Norton, and your engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Via the filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Maybe returning from Barrow Wood, or midway across Priors Norton, your motor might run rough, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or cut out. Stop when safe. Turn off. Keep it off instead of testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Priors Norton sits under 3 miles from the M5; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so heading for Gloucester, under 5 miles away, gives a far bigger job than hopping across Priors Norton to the car park by Saint Mary. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where the car has stopped, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's spotted quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Priors Norton?
Anywhere it has stopped around Priors Norton — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road by The Leigh, St Catherine — our van travels to the vehicle. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if your engine has run, because those answers decide this work.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Then our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay by Gloucester or a drive in Priors Norton. Before we go, we make sure it's running properly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Priors Norton itself
Priors Norton is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with a low elevation of around 28 metres. Priors Norton lies close to the city of Gloucester, approximately 4.4 miles away, and is near other local places such as Evington and Norton. Priors Norton has a population of around 542 people and predominantly features detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Priors Norton and Gloucestershire
AdBlue jobs around Priors Norton are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Evington, Norton plus The Leigh — and most of Gloucestershire beyond, across GL postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No moving is needed. In Priors Norton, a rural hamlet, a mobile service works: the car is drained on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Priors Norton?
Since each callouts differ, a single figure wouldn't be honest. The price moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Norton Village Hall.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: each Priors Norton call opens by asking exactly that, ahead of a figure, never after. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Priors Norton: still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Priors Norton or anywhere across Gloucestershire.