Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Redland
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Redland. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Redland, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BS6 7, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Moving the car just a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Many diesels run their pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it is wasted.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Redland Road.
- Draining the tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
At a forecourt in Redland, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car clear of the petrol pump. At home, the car stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Kingsdown overnight and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though when your engine turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches till it's cleared from the system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny passages. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Redland makes things worse. Inside your tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Asda and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside your tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Redland or out in Clifton, does more harm than almost any other slip.
As with petrol, there is good news. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only in the tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere your car has come to rest in Bristol.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Redland
Many motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. No one means it. Mostly it is not the filling station: someone buys a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside St Johns Church of England Primary School, Clifton, after a warning light flashed 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 Lower Redland Road. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Shakespeare, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Rented motors, new cars, company motors, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it the most. Wherever across Bristol, Redland included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Redland: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, maybe midway across Redland or returning from Clyde Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M32, under 3 miles from Redland, by the next junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, and so driving towards Bristol, under 3 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Redland to the car park by Sgt Reginald Incledon. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Redland
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that's a road near Redland Parish Church, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt around Redland, and the van comes to it. The work rests on three answers, and our technicians get before all else — what got in, the amount, and if the engine has run.
Then your tank is emptied where the car sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by the nearest station or on a driveway around Redland. It's tested on fresh diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians head off. As the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Redland, briefly
Redland is a suburban area located just north of Bristol city centre, at an elevation of around 72 metres. Redland sits in a residential part of the city, close to nearby areas such as Bishopston, Cotham, and Westbury Park. Redland is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical architecture of suburban Bristol. Redland is also relatively close to London, being around 106.7 miles west of the capital.
AdBlue drains across Bristol, Redland included
AdBlue call-outs around Redland go to teams that cover the places around it — Bishopston, Cotham plus Westbury Park — and most of Bristol beyond, across BS postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A van that comes to you suits Redland, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the car to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Redland: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, and so not one fixed price is fair. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind monkey.
What was put in, how much, and if it ran: each Redland call opens with exactly those, before a figure, not after. Once those are answered, a range becomes a single fixed figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Redland and still alongside the car?
Then, do nothing — that's the best move there is. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Redland or wherever in Bristol.