Rotten Row: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The harm begins once it's pulled through the lines — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully purged where the car stands in Rotten Row. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Rotten Row, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so do not bin it out.
- Give us a postcode starting B93 0, or whichever street is closest, and our van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Shifting your car even a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it's wasted.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Grove Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the kerbside.
On a forecourt around Rotten Row, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. No part in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and none of it was meant to go through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Knowle last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. A car left sitting in Rotten Row with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Sainsbury's, and the issue is diluted fuel. Blended into your diesel and sitting still, it is no threat for now; using the motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Darley Green or the middle of Rotten Row.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever across West Midlands the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Rotten Row?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is never the filling station: a driver buys a container heading home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up gets rushed outside St George and St Teresa Catholic Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Warwick Road, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark outside The King's Arms, your car is topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new car, a company car, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels — the vehicles drivers know least. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Rotten Row or the remainder of West Midlands you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rotten Row, and the motor started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Brook Meadow Nature Reserve SSSI or halfway across Rotten Row. When you safely can, pull over and turn it off — with no restarting to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M42, under 3 miles from Rotten Row, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so heading towards Coventry, under 10 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Rotten Row to the car park by Knowle United Reformed Church. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it is caught quickly.
Rotten Row: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a road near St George & St Teresa's, a driveway, a layby or a filling station around Rotten Row, and the van comes to it. Three answers shape the work, and so first our engineers ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, and whether the engine has run.
Next, emptying that tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by Dorridge or a driveway around Rotten Row, that is where our technicians start the car and you drive off. The test before our technicians head off is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Rotten Row itself
Rotten Row is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in the West Midlands, with a relatively low elevation of 114 metres. Rotten Row lies near several other small settlements, including Knowle Grove, Tilehouse Green, and Norton Green, and is located approximately 9.7 miles from Coventry. Rotten Row is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Rotten Row is also within commuting distance of larger cities, being around 91 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Rotten Row and across West Midlands
AdBlue call-outs in Rotten Row go to vans that cover the places near it — Knowle Grove, Tilehouse Green as well as Norton Green — and much of West Midlands further out, throughout B postcodes. Phone and check instead of guessing when you're close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Rotten Row is a rural hamlet, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Rotten Row: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. What changes the price is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Knowle Parish Church.
That's why each call from Rotten Row starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
The price is given during the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Alongside the car in Rotten Row, still?
Then, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Rotten Row or anywhere in West Midlands.