Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Spring Vale
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts once your pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Spring Vale, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Spring Vale: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take your keys out.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Give us a postcode starting BB3 2, or whichever street is nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so call wherever you are.
Do not:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Cranberry Chase.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
Get the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Spring Vale, whether it is the Shell or elsewhere. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what your motor emits. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the same spot the intake draws from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Radford last night and hasn't been started since. The liquid waits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it will be the first thing through if your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of damage 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, so it keeps working on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it overnight in Spring Vale leaves it worse. In the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Texaco, and this problem is diluted fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and left in that tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. 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 motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Darwen or the middle of Spring Vale.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever across Lancashire the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Spring Vale?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly occurs at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Darwen, St Barnabas CofE Primary Academy. A driver tips the bottle in outside their house, right off Spring Vale Garden Village, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Spinners.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the other car of a home with both fuels — the cars people know least. Anywhere around Lancashire, Spring Vale included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Spring Vale?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Whitehall Park or halfway across Spring Vale. No restarting to test: pull over once it is safe, then turn everything off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M65, under 3 miles from Spring Vale, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Spring Vale to the car park by St Barnabas is a very different job from a run towards Preston, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once your engine has been started. Permanent damage is very unusual if it's noticed quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Spring Vale: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest in Spring Vale — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside St Peter's — the van comes to the car. The work depends on three replies, which our engineers ask for before all else — which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether your engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not wash out by itself. Testing your car follows last, once fresh diesel is added and the filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the last step. After that our engineers start the engine and you set off, whether from a parking space by Darwen or a drive around Spring Vale. It's checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our technicians leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Spring Vale and where it is
Spring Vale is a suburban area situated on the lakeside in Lancashire, with a mix of terraced housing and scenic views. Spring Vale sits at an elevation of 198 metres, providing a pleasant outlook across the surrounding countryside. Spring Vale is located near several smaller communities, including Sough, Whitehall, and Blacksnape, and is within commuting distance of Preston, the nearest city.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Spring Vale included
Throughout the BB postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Spring Vale serve most of Lancashire as well, Sough, Whitehall and Blacksnape among them. Near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
No towing is needed. In Spring Vale, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: your car is drained where it stands, whether in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Spring Vale
Since each callouts differ, a single figure wouldn't be honest. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open drive is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind South African War Memorial.
That is why every call from Spring Vale starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. When they are known, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your policy while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Spring Vale and still beside the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Spring Vale or anywhere within Lancashire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.