AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shallowford? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your motor off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until your engine pulls it through. In Shallowford, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Shallowford, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Remove your keys, which stops anyone switching the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting ST15 0, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the car.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: the motor stays off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch up Searchlight Lane.
- By the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
Rolling your car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Shallowford forecourt you're on, the Esso included. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its supply from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Walton overnight and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, untouched — but it would be the first thing through if the engine runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on any part it touches until it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in tiny channels. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it overnight in Shallowford makes things worse. Inside that tank alone, time does nothing. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the BP, and this problem is thinned fuel. No harm comes while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only once the motor works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Great Bridgeford or the middle of Shallowford.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere across Staffordshire your vehicle sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Shallowford
Many motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and after dark the two can look the same. Nobody means it. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Springfields First School. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a drive near Station Road. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Railway Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the spare vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers know the least. Wherever in Staffordshire, Shallowford as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Shallowford?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
You may notice your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Izaak Walton's Cottage or halfway across Shallowford. No starting it again to check: pull over when safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M6, under 3 miles from Shallowford, by the next junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
Hopping across Shallowford to the car park by Izaak Walton's Cottage is one thing; driving for Stoke-on-Trent, under 15 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been started. Long-term damage is very rare if it's caught quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Shallowford
A road beside St Luke's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the car has come to rest in Shallowford, we come to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if the engine has run, since those answers decide the work.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the system is primed with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking space outside Norton Bridge or a driveway in Shallowford, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. It's tested on clean diesel to confirm it runs properly before our technicians go. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Shallowford
Shallowford is a small hamlet in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 87 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Shallowford lies near the villages of Little Bridgeford, Chebsey, and Norton Bridge, and is approximately 11 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Shallowford has a population of around 563 people and is located in a rural area of the West Midlands region. Shallowford is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of around 128 miles.
AdBlue drains in Shallowford and across Staffordshire
Over the ST postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Shallowford serve much of Staffordshire too, Little Bridgeford, Chebsey and Norton Bridge included. Guessing won't help close to a border or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
Shallowford is a rural hamlet, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Shallowford
Every job differs, and so no single price would be fair. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether the motor has run 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 simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Chebsey Parish Hall.
What was put in, what quantity, plus if it ran: every Shallowford call opens with precisely that, ahead of any quote, not afterwards. When they are answered, a range turns into a single firm number.
Before a van sets off, you are told the quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In Shallowford and still beside your car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Shallowford or anywhere in Staffordshire, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.