Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rumer Hill
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Rumer Hill. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rumer Hill: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Remove the keys, which stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Ring just where you are. Say a WS11 8 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so leave the car off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's pointless.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch along Devon Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Moving the car off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Rumer Hill forecourt you are on, the Asda included. At your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was meant to go through one.
It doesn't blend. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. A car topped up on a driveway in Bridgtown yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when your engine runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. A car left sitting around Rumer Hill with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a second form of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Sainsbury's and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your vehicle is in Hawks Green or the heart of Rumer Hill, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Staffordshire the car is standing.
Rumer Hill: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many designs invite it. A container bought when driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School. After work, a container goes in on a drive close to Brook Vale. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Arcade.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new car, a company motor, or the spare car of a family with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers use the least. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to the same mistake, anywhere around Rumer Hill or the remainder of Staffordshire you are.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Rumer Hill?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may notice your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Mill Green Nature Park or halfway across Rumer Hill. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M6 Toll, under a mile from Rumer Hill, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
A quick hop across Rumer Hill to the car park by The Salvation Army - Cannock is one thing; heading for Lichfield, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it is spotted soon.
Rumer Hill: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car stays where it is, whether that's a road near Mill Street Methodist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Rumer Hill, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has been run, because those replies settle the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue 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. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Priming your system with clean diesel comes last. Starting the engine comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Cannock or on a driveway in Rumer Hill. Our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we leave. No workshop is required at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Rumer Hill itself
Rumer Hill is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Staffordshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 2873 residents. Rumer Hill lies approximately 8 miles from the city of Lichfield and is near other local places such as Mill Green and Leacroft. Rumer Hill is set in a relatively low-lying area, with an elevation of around 136 metres above sea level. Rumer Hill is also within commuting distance of larger cities, being around 114 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Rumer Hill included
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs in Rumer Hill also cover the places about it, Mill Green, Leacroft and Cannock among them, and most of Staffordshire beyond, across the WS postcode area. Guessing won't help by a border or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
A van that comes to you suits Rumer Hill, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the car to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Rumer Hill?
Since each jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be honest. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open drive is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Electric Palace Picture House.
For that reason, every call from Rumer Hill begins with the same trio — what went in, what quantity, whether it ran — before any quote. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your policy while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the car in Rumer Hill, still?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Rumer Hill or wherever in Staffordshire.