Skellorn Green: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system draws it in. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Skellorn Green. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Skellorn Green, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting SK10 4, or whatever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Don't:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the car: the motor remains off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch along Street Lane.
- By the road, don't try draining it on your own.
The staff on duty at any Skellorn Green filling station — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Wood Lanes last night and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of that tank, undrawn — but it would be the first thing through once your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
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 labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a car parked in Skellorn Green with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is only in your tank, nothing changes. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Shell, and this problem is diluted fuel. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and left inside your tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the following fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Skellorn Green or out in Midway, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Cheshire your vehicle has stopped.
Skellorn Green: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; many designs allow it. A container picked up when heading home and tipped in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside St Paul's Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped off. Someone tips the container in outside their house, right off Cawley Lane, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by the pub in the village.
Hired motors, new cars, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. Same mistake, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be in Skellorn Green or the rest of Cheshire.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Skellorn Green?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Sandholes or halfway across Skellorn Green. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the Roscoe's Spur, under 10 miles from Skellorn Green, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Skellorn Green to park near Poynton Leisure Centre and a drive of under 15 miles towards Manchester are such different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the rinsing where the car has stopped, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very rare when it is noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Skellorn Green?
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Skellorn Green: a side street close to Adlington Petting Farm, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has been run, since those answers determine this work.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Whether it's a parking space by Adlington (Cheshire) or a drive around Skellorn Green, that is where we start the engine and you set off. It is tested on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our technicians leave. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Skellorn Green itself
Skellorn Green is a small hamlet in Cheshire, situated inland at an elevation of 109 metres, and is located approximately 11.5 miles from Manchester. Skellorn Green is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is surrounded by other small settlements such as Booth Green and Hope Green. Skellorn Green has a population of around 512 residents, and is part of the wider North West region of England. Skellorn Green is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 151.4 miles.
AdBlue drains in Skellorn Green and across Cheshire
Booth Green, Wardsend and Hope Green are among the towns around Skellorn Green that the same vans serve, together with much of Cheshire beyond, throughout the SK postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
No moving is needed. In Skellorn Green, a rural hamlet, a van that comes to you works: your vehicle is drained where it stands, whether in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Skellorn Green: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each callouts vary, a flat price would not be fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St John, Mission Church.
Before any figure, never afterwards, each call from Skellorn Green begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Their answers narrow the range down to a single figure.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Skellorn Green: still beside the car?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Skellorn Green or anywhere across Cheshire.