Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stafford
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The harm starts once it's sucked through your lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Stafford. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Stafford: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the amount, so do not throw it away.
- Ring just where you are. Say a ST16 2 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment your ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Greengate Street.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
The staff working at any Stafford forecourt — the the nearest petrol station included — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a driveway in Littleworth yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when your engine turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What is left once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning around Stafford leaves it worse. Inside the tank only, time costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Asda, and this issue is thinned fuel. Mixed through your diesel and left unused, it's harmless for now; running your motor does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the next tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Stafford or out in Castlefields, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits just in your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, wherever your car has come to rest around Staffordshire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Stafford?
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A bottle picked up when driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical story.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside St Austin's Catholic Primary School and Nursery. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Mill Street. Or a driver new to that flap refills your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by The Bear.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that's the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere around Stafford or the rest of Staffordshire you happen to be.
Stafford: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Victoria Park, say, or part way across Stafford. Once safe, stop then turn everything off — without turning it on again to test. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Leave the M6, under 3 miles from Stafford, by the first junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system. That's why a hop across Stafford to park near St Chad's and a drive of under 15 miles towards Lichfield are such different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after your engine has been run. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Stafford?
Wherever it has come to rest in Stafford — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by The Museum of the Staffordshire Yeomanry — the van comes to your car. The work depends on three answers, and our engineers get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has run.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing the car comes last, after clean diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, if needed, replaced. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Last, the fuel system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space by the nearest station or a driveway around Stafford, that is where we start it and you set off. We check it runs smoothly on new diesel before we go. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Stafford itself
Stafford is a town situated on the River Sow in the West Midlands region of England, with a population of around 20309 people. Stafford sits at an elevation of 81 metres, approximately 123 miles northwest of London, and is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing. Stafford is located near several smaller areas, including Broadeye, Forebridge, and Castletown, and is close to the city of Lichfield, which lies around 15 miles to the southeast. Stafford has a riverside setting that influences its geography and layout.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Stafford included
Broadeye, Forebridge and Castletown are among the places near Stafford that the same teams reach, along with much of Staffordshire beyond, throughout the ST postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
Wherever the vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Stafford, a riverside town, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Stafford: the cost of fixing it
Because the callouts vary, a single figure would not be honest. What shifts the cost is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Ancient High House.
That's why each call from Stafford starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Beside the car in Stafford, right now?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Stafford or anywhere in Staffordshire.