AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Springs Mire? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens till your engine sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Springs Mire, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Springs Mire: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a DY1 2 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Moving your car even a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch along Spring Parklands.
- Beside the road, do not try draining it on your own.
The staff on duty at any Springs Mire forecourt — the Texaco included — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, because it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Blowers Green last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It does two kinds of harm 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 running on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight in Springs Mire makes things worse. Inside your tank alone, time costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a second form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside your tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It cannot simply be run through, because it does not burn. Deposits and corrosion remain through the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Old Dock or the heart of Springs Mire equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across West Midlands the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Springs Mire: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's not the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Blowers Green Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken off. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Stourbridge Road. Else, after dark outside White Swan, the vehicle is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least known cars see it the most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the other vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. An identical slip, same first response — keep it off — wherever you happen to be around Springs Mire or the remainder of West Midlands.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Springs Mire, and the engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. It has been drawn through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Black Country Millennium Forest, say, or midway across Springs Mire. When safe, stop and switch it off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M5, under 5 miles from Springs Mire, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Springs Mire to the car park by Millenium Pegasus is a very different job from a run towards Wolverhampton, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
Springs Mire: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped around Springs Mire — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Wellington Road Community Centre — the van travels to the vehicle. Which fluid got in, roughly the quantity, plus whether your motor has turned over: our engineers ask first, because those decide the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after your tank is emptied, on the spot. A careful flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't clear away on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by Tipton or on a drive in Springs Mire. Our technicians make sure it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Springs Mire
Springs Mire is a suburban area located on the riverside in the West Midlands, with an elevation of around 175 metres. Springs Mire sits near the city of Wolverhampton, approximately 5.7 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Scotts Green and Russells Hall. Springs Mire has a population of around 6690 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Springs Mire is situated in a region that is about 108.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across West Midlands, Springs Mire included
The teams that answer AdBlue calls around Springs Mire also cover the places round it, Scotts Green, Russells Hall and New Dock among them, and most of West Midlands beyond, across the DY postcode area. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
A van that comes to you suits Springs Mire, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Springs Mire: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, so no single price is fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Guru Nanak Singh Sabha Gurdwara.
That's why every call from Springs Mire starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, the range shrinks to one firm number.
You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Alongside your car around Springs Mire, right now?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Springs Mire or anywhere in West Midlands, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.