Purton: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The harm begins once it is pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Purton. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Purton, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Which product, and roughly how much amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and we can know.
- Tell us a postcode starting SN5 4, or whichever street lies closest, and the van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not do these:
- Moving your car just a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is pointless.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch down Church Street.
- Beside the road, do not try draining it on your own.
The staff working at any Purton filling station — the Shell among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. After it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Dogridge yesterday and not switched on stays the straightforward case, as long as nobody turns your key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A car left sitting around Purton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running past them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A problem of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the Asda. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is in the tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in The Fox or the middle of Purton.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Wiltshire your car is sitting.
Purton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits 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 occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Rushing, outside St Mary's Church of England Primary School & Nursery, Purton, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off High Street. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park by The Angel.
It takes place most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, same first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be around Purton or the rest of Wiltshire.
Purton: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Millennium Garden, perhaps, or midway across Purton. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Purton sits under 3 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Purton to the car park by Purton Library is a very different job from a run towards Gloucester, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Purton?
A street beside Purton Museum, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the car has come to rest around Purton, our technicians travel to it. The job rests on three answers, which we get before all else — which fluid got in, the quantity, and if the motor has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not wash out by itself. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. You drive off as soon as we have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Purton or in a space at Swindon. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Purton, briefly
Purton is a village in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 114 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Purton lies approximately 25 miles from Gloucester and 75 miles from London, placing it in a rural setting with nearby areas including Church End and Purton Common. Purton has a population of around 1301 residents, living in a mix of old and new properties. Purton remains a small, quiet community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains around Purton and across Wiltshire
AdBlue call-outs in Purton are passed to vans that cover the places near it — Church End, Widham as well as Purton Common — and much of Wiltshire beyond, across SN postcodes. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Anywhere the car sits — your driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Purton, a rural village, well.
Purton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because each callouts vary, a single figure would not be fair. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open drive is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight space behind Purton Village Hall.
That's why each call from Purton starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Once those are known, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our price by phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Check your insurance while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Still alongside your car around Purton?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best step available. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Purton or anywhere within Wiltshire, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.