Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shireoaks
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it is pulled through your pump — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your car stands in Shireoaks. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Shireoaks: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Quote a S81 8 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Don't:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the vehicle: the engine remains off.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch down Glenthorn Close.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
At a forecourt around Shireoaks, whether it's the Asda or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the petrol pump. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. No part in a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to travel that way.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it waits underneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Rhodesia yesterday and never started stays the simple case, as long as no one turns the key.
Two kinds of harm follow 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, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car parked in Shireoaks. Only in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Sainsbury's and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left in the tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Woodhouse or the middle of Shireoaks.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Nottinghamshire your car has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Shireoaks
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Luke's CofE (Aided) Primary School the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Cornwall Road. Another pattern: dim light, the car park outside Hewett Arms, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet motors, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known cars get it most. An identical slip, same first response — leave it off — wherever you are in Shireoaks or the rest of Nottinghamshire.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Shireoaks?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through your filter and lines.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Shireoaks Cricket Club, say, or midway across Shireoaks. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M1, under 5 miles from Shireoaks, by the first junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Shireoaks to the car park by St Luke's Church is a very different job from a run towards Sheffield, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it's caught soon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Shireoaks: what it takes
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Shireoaks: a side street near Shireoaks Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what got in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run, because those answers determine the work.
Then the tank is drained where the vehicle sits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, outside the nearest station or on a drive in Shireoaks. Our technicians make sure it runs properly on new diesel before we go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Shireoaks itself
Shireoaks is a village in Nottinghamshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 54 metres, with nearby areas including Gateford Common and Cotterhill Woods. Shireoaks has a population of around 1504 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Shireoaks is located near Turnerwood and is close to the city of Sheffield, which is 13.1 miles away. Shireoaks is also within a reasonable distance from London, at 133.0 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Nottinghamshire, Shireoaks included
Over the S postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs around Shireoaks serve much of Nottinghamshire as well, Gateford Common, Turnerwood and Cotterhill Woods included. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
Anywhere your car sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Shireoaks, a village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Shireoaks?
Not one single figure could be honest, because every job is different. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight spot behind Woodlands View Point.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Shireoaks begins by asking the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, if it ran — before a quote. Those replies shrink the range right down to one figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. While the van is travelling, dig out your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Shireoaks and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Shireoaks or anywhere across Nottinghamshire.