AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Red Bull? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; damage only starts when your pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Red Bull, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Red Bull, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- Take your keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting ST7 3, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Don't:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the vehicle: the motor remains off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance along Congleton Road North.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
Moving your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Red Bull forecourt you are on, the Tesco included. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate reservoir it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Kidsgrove overnight and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through if the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting till morning around Red Bull makes things worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting does nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Sainsbury's's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that's the whole fault. No harm is done as long as it sits put, blended into the diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the next tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Red Bull or out in Hollins, does more harm than almost any other error.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside the tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere your vehicle has stopped in Cheshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Red Bull
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside The Reginald Mitchell Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Liverpool Road East. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at the pub in the village, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, brand-new motors, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it most. Wherever you're around Red Bull or the remainder of Cheshire, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Red Bull?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Maybe coming back from Flee Crows Plantation, or midway across Red Bull, your motor may go rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop when safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M6, under 5 miles from Red Bull, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, and so driving towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Red Bull to the car park by Congleton Road Community Centre. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to clean out once your engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Long-term damage is very uncommon when it's caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Red Bull?
Wherever it has come to rest around Red Bull — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside The Baptist Church Butt Lane — our van travels to your vehicle. The work depends on three answers, which our technicians get first — which fluid was put in, the amount, and if the motor has run.
Then your tank is cleared where the car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing your car follows at the end, after clean diesel is added and the filter is cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the final step. Whether it is a parking bay by Kidsgrove or a driveway in Red Bull, that is where our engineers fire it up and you head off. Before leaving, our engineers check it's running properly with clean diesel in. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Red Bull
Red Bull is a suburban area in Cheshire, situated on the riverside with a mix of detached housing and open spaces. Red Bull has a relatively small population of around 741 residents and is located near other local places such as Hardings Wood and Butt Lane. Red Bull sits at an elevation of 121 metres, close to the city of Stoke-on-Trent, which is about 6 miles away. Red Bull is also within commuting distance of larger cities, with London being approximately 142 miles to the south.
AdBlue drains across Red Bull and Cheshire
Over the ST postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Red Bull serve much of Cheshire as well, Hardings Wood, Butt Lane and Woodshutts among them. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're by a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
A mobile service fits Red Bull, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your car to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Red Bull: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat figure would be fair, since each job is different. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind All Saints Church, Church Lawton.
With that in mind, each enquiry from Red Bull opens with the identical trio — which fluid went in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Their replies narrow a range down to a single figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Red Bull: still alongside your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Red Bull or wherever within Cheshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.