Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rodborough
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it's sucked through the lines — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Rodborough, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rodborough: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call just where you are. Say a GL5 3 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Never:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch down Dudbridge Hill.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any Rodborough filling station — the Esso included — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, which is how a car topped up in Cainscross last night and never switched on stays the straightforward case, provided no one turns the key.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a car parked in Rodborough with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it is only in your tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. No harm comes as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in Lightpill or the centre of Rodborough, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, wherever the car has come to rest around Gloucestershire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Rodborough
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside Rodborough Community Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken off. Close to Walkley Hill, someone pours a container in on that drive in the evening. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside Prince Albert.
Rented motors, brand-new motors, company cars, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least familiar cars see it the most. Keep it off: that's the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Rodborough or the rest of Gloucestershire you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Rodborough?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed via the fuel filter and lines.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Rounders Field, say, or part way across Rodborough. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M5, under 5 miles from Rodborough, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
A quick hop across Rodborough to the car park by Stroud Rugby Club is one thing; driving towards Gloucester, under 10 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Rodborough: what it takes
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a road beside Stroud Squash Club, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Rodborough, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has been run, because those replies determine the work.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. What remains from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. A test of your vehicle comes at the end, once clean diesel is added and the filter is cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. After that our technicians fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking space outside Stroud or a driveway around Rodborough. Before we go, our technicians check it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Rodborough and where it is
Rodborough is a suburban area in Gloucestershire, situated near the River Severn at an elevation of 62 metres. Rodborough lies on the outskirts of Gloucester, approximately 8.7 miles from the city centre, and is surrounded by nearby places such as The Butts, Dudbridge, and Stanfields. Rodborough has a population of around 3763 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Rodborough is located in the South West region of England, about 91.7 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Gloucestershire, Rodborough included
AdBlue call-outs around Rodborough are passed to teams that serve the places near it — The Butts, Dudbridge as well as Stanfields — and most of Gloucestershire beyond, throughout GL postcodes. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A mobile service fits Rodborough, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the car to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
Rodborough: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so not one single price would be honest. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Stroud Gas Light & Coke Co. coal chute.
Before a quote, never afterwards, each call from Rodborough begins with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Our price is given on the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Next to the vehicle around Rodborough, still?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Rodborough or anywhere around Gloucestershire.