Shephall: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing starts until your engine pulls it round. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Shephall. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Shephall
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SG2 9, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Even a short distance down Hyde Green South is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Shephall forecourt you are on, the Esso or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was intended to go that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very place the pickup sucks from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits beneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Aston yesterday and not started remains the simple one, provided nobody touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. 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 working on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a car sitting in Shephall. Only in that tank, it stays the same. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Sainsbury's, and the problem is thinned fuel. Blended through the diesel and sitting still, it's harmless at that stage; running the motor does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue separates again from the diesel, and so watering it won't work. That is why the flush matters more, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Chells or the centre of Shephall equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just in your tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, anywhere the car has stopped across Hertfordshire.
Shephall: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Peartree Spring Primary School the top-up is rushed. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Rudd Close. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Old Red Lion, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Rented cars, brand-new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known cars get it most. Keep it switched off: that's the first step to the same slip, anywhere in Shephall or the remainder of Hertfordshire you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Shephall?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed through your filter and lines.
Perhaps returning from Siansean Spring, or part way across Shephall, the motor may go lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Shephall lies under 3 miles from the A1(M); if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Shephall to park near St Mary's Church and a drive of under 15 miles for St Albans are such separate jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very rare when it is noticed quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Shephall: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped around Shephall — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Shephall Community Centre — our van comes to the car. Three replies shape the work, and so before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, and whether your motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when that tank is emptied, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, if your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. After that our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Stevenage or a drive around Shephall. Before we go, we make sure it is running correctly with clean diesel in. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Shephall
Shephall is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 104 metres. Shephall lies approximately 26.7 miles north of London and 11.9 miles south of St Albans, near other local places such as Broadwater, Poplars, and Bedwell. Shephall has a population of around 7755 people and is predominantly composed of terraced housing.
Shephall and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Shephall are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Broadwater, Poplars plus Bedwell — and most of Hertfordshire further out, throughout SG postcodes. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
A mobile service suits Shephall, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Shephall
Every job differs, so no fixed quote is fair. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Grace Community Church.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: each Shephall call begins with precisely that, ahead of a figure, not after. Once they are answered, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
In Shephall and still beside your car?
Then, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Shephall or anywhere around Hertfordshire.