AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Red Cross? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your engine off and keep your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens till the motor sucks it round. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car sits around Red Cross. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Red Cross, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting B61 8, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself starts the pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance up Perryfields Road is too far to drive the car.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Moving the vehicle off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Red Cross forecourt you're on, the BP or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its fuel from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Alfreds Well overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — though it will be first through if your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is cleared out. A motor left sitting around Red Cross with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Morrisons's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the whole issue. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside your tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Bromsgrove or the middle of Red Cross.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around Worcestershire the car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Red Cross?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside The Orchards School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Harland Close. Another version: darkness, the car park outside The York Arms, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
Hired vehicles, new motors, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. An identical mistake, same first response — keep it switched off — wherever you are around Red Cross or the remainder of Worcestershire.
Red Cross: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through the fuel filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, perhaps part way across Red Cross or coming back from Sanders Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M5, under a mile from Red Cross, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Red Cross to the car park by New Song Community Church is one matter; driving for Worcester, under 15 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been running. Lasting damage is very rare if it's spotted early.
Red Cross: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The car stays where it is, whether that is a street beside Royal Hunters Walks, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt around Red Cross, and our van travels to it. Before anything else we ask what got in, about how much, and if the motor has run, because those answers determine the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after that tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since residue won't flush away unaided. A test of your vehicle follows last, once fresh diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, if needed, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians turn up, provided your motor has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. You set off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Red Cross or in a bay by Bromsgrove. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Red Cross, for a moment
Red Cross is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Worcestershire, with a relatively low elevation of 94 metres. Red Cross lies near several other local places, including Perryfields, Sidemoor, and Park Gate, and is located approximately 11.8 miles from Worcester. Red Cross has a population of around 1013 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Red Cross is also within a reasonable distance from London, at around 101.1 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Red Cross and across Worcestershire
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Red Cross also cover the spots about it, Perryfields, Sidemoor and Park Gate among them, and most of Worcestershire beyond, across the B postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Red Cross, a rural hamlet, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Red Cross: the cost of fixing it
There's no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.
For that reason, each enquiry from Red Cross opens with the identical trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single firm figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside the vehicle around Red Cross, still?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Red Cross or anywhere within Worcestershire.