Springfield: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system draws it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully rinsed where the car stands around Springfield. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Springfield: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take the keys out.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so do not throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting B65 8, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition the car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Dudley Road.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
At a forecourt around Springfield, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On that drive, the car stays exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. Nothing inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. A motor filled on a driveway in Brickhouse Farm yesterday evening and not started since is the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when the motor runs, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Once it is sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting around Springfield. Only inside the tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more major than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the whole issue. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside the tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Oakham or the middle of Springfield.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around West Midlands the car has stopped.
Springfield: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — can look the same. No one means it; many designs invite it. A bottle bought when driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Rushing, outside Springfield Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Cromwell Close. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Hailstone, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars see it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company cars, and the other motor of a home with one of each fuels. An identical slip, same first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you are around Springfield or the remainder of West Midlands.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Springfield?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Black Country Millennium Forest or halfway across Springfield. Once you safely can, pull over and switch it off — with no turning it on again to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M5, under 3 miles from Springfield, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so driving for Birmingham, under 10 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Springfield to the car park by Knowle Methodist Church. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has ended up. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Springfield?
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Springfield: a side street near Cobb's Engine House, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three replies, and we ask for before all else — what went in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when that tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since residue will not wash out by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of your car. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The final step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Springfield or in a bay by Old Hill. Our engineers make sure it runs correctly on new diesel before leaving. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Springfield
Springfield is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Rea and close to the city of Birmingham. Springfield sits at an elevation of 177 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Springfield is located near other local places such as The Knowle, Tippity Green, and Windmill End, and is approximately 6.7 miles from Birmingham city centre.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Springfield included
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls in Springfield also cover the spots around it, The Knowle, Tippity Green and Windmill End among them, and most of West Midlands beyond, across the B postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Springfield is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Springfield
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. What changes the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Tollman's Hovel.
That is why each call from Springfield starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Their answers shrink a range right down to one figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside the car around Springfield, still?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Springfield or anywhere around West Midlands.