Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Stechford
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes when the pump starts drawing it. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Stechford. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do straight away, Stechford: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting B33 9, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Moving the vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Flaxley Road.
- Draining that tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
The attendants working at any Stechford filling station — the Shell included — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. At home, the vehicle stays just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a separate tank it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the very place the pickup draws from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Yardley Fields last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle parked in Stechford. Only inside the tank, it stays the same. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the BP, and the problem is thinned fuel. Blended into your diesel and left still, it is harmless at that stage; running your engine does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Lea Hall or the middle of Stechford.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Anywhere across West Midlands your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Stechford: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. A container bought while driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Colebourne Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Iron Lane. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Hornet.
Hired vehicles, new vehicles, company vehicles, or the second vehicle in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. An identical slip, an identical first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Stechford or the remainder of West Midlands.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Stechford?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Your filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Cotterills Lane Public Open Space, perhaps, or part way across Stechford. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M6, under 3 miles from Stechford, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so driving for Birmingham, under 5 miles away, gives a far bigger job than hopping across Stechford to the car park by Funatics. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been run. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it's caught quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Stechford
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Stechford: a side street close to The Stechford Club, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, so before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one after the tank is emptied, right there. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Testing the vehicle comes last, once fresh diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, if needed, replaced. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, the fuel system is bled with new diesel. Whether it's a parking space at the nearest station or a driveway in Stechford, that is where we start the engine and you head off. Before leaving, our technicians check it is running correctly with fresh diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Stechford, for a moment
Stechford is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated on the River Rea and close to the city of Birmingham. Stechford has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the area is relatively flat with an average elevation of 99 metres. Stechford is located near several other suburban areas, including Alum Rock and Glebe Farm, and is about 4 miles from Birmingham city centre. Stechford is also within commuting distance of London, approximately 98.5 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Stechford and across West Midlands
The teams that answer AdBlue calls around Stechford also cover the locations round it, Alum Rock, Glebe Farm and Hodgehill among them, and most of West Midlands beyond, across the B postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
No moving is needed. In Stechford, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: your car is drained on the spot, be it on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Stechford: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Stechford Social Working Mens Club.
That is why every call from Stechford starts with the same three questions, 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 one fixed number.
The price is given on the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
In Stechford and still alongside the car?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Stechford or wherever in West Midlands, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran.