AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Quarry Bank? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the engine off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The harm starts once it is pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Quarry Bank. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Quarry Bank: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so do not throw it away.
- Call just where you are. Say a DY5 2 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Never:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Park Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
Rolling your car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Quarry Bank forecourt you are on, the Asda or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Dudley Wood last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny passages; and, because it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. A motor left sitting around Quarry Bank 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 each injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in the tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It cannot simply be run through, since it does not burn. Crystals and corrosion stay after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Cradley Heath or the centre of Quarry Bank equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever in West Midlands the car sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Quarry Bank?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Quarry Bank Primary School. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Dunslade Crescent, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Church Tavern, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the other car in a family with both fuels — the cars drivers know least. Wherever around West Midlands, Quarry Bank included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
Quarry Bank: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It's been drawn through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Maybe returning from War Memorial, or part way across Quarry Bank, your motor might go rough, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or cut out. Once you safely can, pull over then turn everything off — with no turning it on again to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M5, under 5 miles from Quarry Bank, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Quarry Bank to the car park by Christ Church is a very different job from a run towards Wolverhampton, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Quarry Bank
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Quarry Bank: a side street near Quarry Bank Congregational, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has run, because those replies determine this work.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking bay by Cradley Heath or a drive in Quarry Bank, that is where we start the engine and you set off. Before we leave, our engineers confirm it is running correctly with new diesel in. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Quarry Bank, briefly
Quarry Bank is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated lakeside with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Quarry Bank sits at an elevation of 121 metres, approximately 8 miles from Wolverhampton and within commuting distance of other nearby places like Brierley Hill and Withymoor Village. Quarry Bank has a population of around 6880 residents, living in a predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Quarry Bank is located near Mushroom Green, with Wolverhampton providing nearby city amenities.
AdBlue drains in Quarry Bank and across West Midlands
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls around Quarry Bank also cover the locations around it, Brierley Hill, Mushroom Green and Withymoor Village among them, and most of West Midlands beyond, across the DY postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
A van that comes to you suits Quarry Bank, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Quarry Bank: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind War Memorial.
What got in, how much, plus if the engine ran: each Quarry Bank call begins by asking exactly that, before a quote, never afterwards. Given them, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
The quote is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Beside the vehicle around Quarry Bank, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Quarry Bank or wherever within West Midlands, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.