Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Schoolgreen
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off then leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble starts once it is pulled through the lines — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully cleaned where the car sits in Schoolgreen. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Schoolgreen: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not bin it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting RG2 9, or whichever street is nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Shifting your car just a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Switching the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Chestnut Crescent.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
Moving the vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Schoolgreen forecourt you are on, the Esso included. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Three Mile Cross last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — though it will be first through once your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it's sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight around Schoolgreen makes it worse. In your tank only, waiting costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing through them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the main problem. No harm is done as long as it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Arborfield or the middle of Schoolgreen.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere in Berkshire your vehicle has stopped.
Schoolgreen: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver buys a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Shinfield Infant and Nursery School the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Hyde End Road. Otherwise, after dark by Bell & Bottle, the car is topped up by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, brand-new motors, company motors, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least known vehicles see it the most. Anywhere in Berkshire, Schoolgreen as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Schoolgreen, and the engine started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
Watch for rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Deardon Field, say, or part way across Schoolgreen. When safe, pull over then turn everything off — without restarting to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M4, under a mile from Schoolgreen, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue further into your system, so driving towards Oxford, under 50 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Schoolgreen to the car park by Shinfield War Memorial. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Lasting damage is very rare if it is caught quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Schoolgreen
A street by School Green Centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the car has come to rest around Schoolgreen, we travel to it. The work rests on three replies, which our engineers get before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if your engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after your tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed right through since what remains won't flush away by itself. After that, the filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of the vehicle. Not run? Then count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Earley or on a driveway in Schoolgreen. It is tested on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our engineers head off. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Schoolgreen
Schoolgreen is a suburban area in Berkshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 45 metres. Schoolgreen lies within the commuter belt, approximately 36 miles from London and 27 miles from Oxford, making it a popular residential location. Schoolgreen is characterised by its semi-detached housing and is surrounded by nearby places such as Shinfield, Ryeish Green, and Whitley Wood. Schoolgreen has a population of around 4005 residents.
AdBlue drains across Schoolgreen and Berkshire
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Schoolgreen also cover the locations about it, Shinfield, Ryeish Green and Whitley Wood among them, and most of Berkshire beyond, across the RG postcode area. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
No towing is needed. In Schoolgreen, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the car is drained on the spot, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Schoolgreen: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No flat price would be honest, because every job is different. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind St Mary's Parish Church.
Ahead of any figure, never afterwards, each call from Schoolgreen opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. When those are answered, a range turns into one fixed figure.
Our quote is given on the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Beside the car around Schoolgreen, right now?
Then, do nothing — that's the best step available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Berkshire, Schoolgreen too.