AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Summerhayes? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and the ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens until your motor sucks it round. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Summerhayes. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Summerhayes: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull the keys away.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Quote a GL11 5 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep it off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's wasted.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short way up The Crescent.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the verge.
Moving the car off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Summerhayes forecourt you're on, the Shell included. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Lower Cam yesterday and never switched on stays the simple one, provided nobody turns the key.
After it's drawn in, the damage takes two forms. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting in Summerhayes. Just in that tank, it stays stable. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Texaco. No harm is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Tilsdown or the middle of Summerhayes.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits only in that tank, the easiest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has stopped across Gloucestershire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Summerhayes
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Cam Everlands Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to The Drive. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Railway, your car gets refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere across Gloucestershire, Summerhayes included, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
Summerhayes: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Via your filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might appear, maybe midway across Summerhayes or coming back from Norman Hill Playing Field. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M5, under 3 miles from Summerhayes, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Summerhayes to the car park by Lower Cam War Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Gloucester, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to clean out once the engine has been run, and we do all of it where the car has ended up. Permanent damage is very rare if it is caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Summerhayes?
A road by St Bartholomews Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the vehicle has stopped around Summerhayes, we travel to it. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, plus if the motor has turned over: our technicians check before all else, since those decide the work.
Next, draining your tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of the car. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on clean diesel. Then our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay by Cam & Dursley or a drive in Summerhayes. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. As the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Summerhayes
Summerhayes is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Gloucestershire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 5474 residents. Summerhayes sits at an elevation of 68 metres, close to the nearby places of Cam, Fairmead, and Norman Hill. Summerhayes is located near Gloucester, which is 12.6 miles away, and is about 96.9 miles west of London. Summerhayes has a relatively low elevation, typical of the riverside areas in the region.
AdBlue drains around Summerhayes and across Gloucestershire
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Summerhayes also cover the places round it, Cam, Fairmead and Norman Hill among them, and most of Gloucestershire beyond, across the GL postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
No moving is needed. In Summerhayes, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the car is drained where it stands, whether in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Summerhayes?
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Cam Youth and Community Centre.
For that reason, each enquiry from Summerhayes opens with the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, if it ran — ahead of any quote. With those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the quote by phone. And you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still alongside the car around Summerhayes?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Summerhayes or wherever within Gloucestershire.