Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sherrards Green
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Sherrards Green. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Sherrards Green, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting WR14 2, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Don't do these:
- Shifting your car even a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it is pointless.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch down Orford Way.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
Moving the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Sherrards Green forecourt you are on, the Gulf or any other. At home, your car stays exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, treating what the motor emits. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Malvern Link last night and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — but it will be first through once the engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it's flushed out. Pipes holding AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle parked around Sherrards Green. Just inside your tank, it stays the same. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Countrywide Farmers. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside your tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Whether the car sits in Great Malvern or the centre of Sherrards Green, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere around Worcestershire the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Sherrards Green
Many motors place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. Nobody means it. A bottle picked up when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Great Malvern Primary School the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Madresfield Road. Otherwise, after dark outside The Foresters Arms, the vehicle gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
It takes place most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same mistake, anywhere in Sherrards Green or the remainder of Worcestershire you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sherrards Green, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through your filter, along the lines, and — with any running time — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it has gone.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Prospect Community Woodland, perhaps, or midway across Sherrards Green. No restarting to test: stop when safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M5, under 5 miles from Sherrards Green, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Hopping across Sherrards Green to the car park by Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses is one matter; heading towards Worcester, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the motor has been started. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it's caught early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Sherrards Green: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped around Sherrards Green — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by The Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary — the van travels to the car. Three replies decide the work, so first our technicians ask what was put in, about what quantity, plus if the engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is emptied, on the spot. A careful flush matters far more after AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains won't clear out on its own. After that, your filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your engine has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay outside Great Malvern or a drive in Sherrards Green, that is where our technicians fire it up and you drive off. The check before we leave is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Sherrards Green
Sherrards Green is a suburban area located near Worcester in Worcestershire, set in a low-lying inland area at an elevation of around 47 metres. Sherrards Green sits close to several nearby places, including Pound Bank, Barnards Green, and Poolbrook, and is about 6.5 miles from the city of Worcester. Sherrards Green has a population of approximately 5742 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Sherrards Green and across Worcestershire
Over the WR postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Sherrards Green serve much of Worcestershire too, Pound Bank, Barnards Green and Poolbrook among them. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Sherrards Green, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Sherrards Green: the cost of fixing it
Since the callouts differ, a flat figure would not be honest. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Malvern Evangelical Church.
Which fluid was put in, how much, plus if the engine ran: every Sherrards Green call opens by asking precisely that, ahead of any figure, not afterwards. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still alongside your car around Sherrards Green?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Sherrards Green or anywhere across Worcestershire.