AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Rowton? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The harm begins once it is sucked through the lines — it won't ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. In Rowton, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rowton: the first few minutes
Do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which product, and about what volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers will see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SY5 9, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the car: the engine remains off.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance down A458.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
The attendants on duty at any Rowton forecourt — the Shell included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It does not combine. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Halfway House last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the foot of your tank, untouched — though it will be first through once the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of damage come 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 running on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a car sitting around Rowton with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is just in the tank, nothing changes. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water part harms them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the whole issue. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It can't just be run through, because it does not burn. Deposits and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue separates back from your diesel, so watering it can't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning the key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Eyton or the heart of Rowton equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Shropshire your car is standing.
Rowton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container bought while driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Trinity CofE Primary School the refill is hurried. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Old School Lane. Else, in dim light outside the pub in the village, the vehicle is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, new ones, company cars, and the spare vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Rowton or the remainder of Shropshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Rowton, and the engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked along, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might appear, perhaps midway across Rowton or coming back from Rough Burrows. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M54, under 25 miles from Rowton, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
A quick hop across Rowton to the car park by St Margaret is one matter; heading for Wrexham, under 25 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has stopped, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it is noticed soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Rowton
A street beside Wattlesborough Methodist Church, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your car has stopped around Rowton, our engineers come to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether your engine has been run, because those replies determine the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of your car. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. Whether it is a parking bay outside Shrewsbury or a drive around Rowton, that is where we start the engine and you set off. Our engineers check it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. We do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Rowton itself
Rowton is a small village in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 129 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Rowton lies near several heaths, including Wattlesborough Heath and Stretton Heath, and is close to the village of Westbury. Rowton is located approximately 24 miles from Wrexham and 145 miles from London, making it a rural community with a relatively small population of around 565 residents.
AdBlue drains across Shropshire, Rowton included
AdBlue call-outs in Rowton are passed to vans that serve the places near it — Wattlesborough Heath, Stretton Heath as well as Westbury — and much of Shropshire beyond, throughout SY postcodes. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
No moving is needed. In Rowton, a rural village, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained on the spot, whether in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Rowton?
Not one single figure would be honest, since every job is different. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight spot behind Wattlesborough Castle.
Ahead of any figure, not afterwards, every call from Rowton opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you are told the price by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Alongside the vehicle around Rowton, right now?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran is everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Shropshire, Rowton included.