Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sutton Heath
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the engine. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage only comes when your pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Sutton Heath, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Sutton Heath, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't bin it away.
- Give us a postcode starting WA9 5, or whichever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Don't:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not weaken it.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way up Poynter Street.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
At a forecourt in Sutton Heath, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It doesn't combine. After it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Brown Edge last night and never switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as nobody touches the key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it reaches until it is removed from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it overnight around Sutton Heath leaves things worse. Inside the tank only, time costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is inside your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Ravenhead or the heart of Sutton Heath, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other error, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Merseyside the car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Sutton Heath
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside St John Vianney Catholic Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken off. Close to Beresford Street, a driver tips a container in on the drive in the evening. Or someone new to that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by Boars Head.
It takes place most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere in Sutton Heath or the remainder of Merseyside you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sutton Heath?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any might appear, perhaps part way across Sutton Heath or returning from Platt's Field. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M62, under 3 miles from Sutton Heath, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Sutton Heath to the car park by Nutgrove Methodist Church is one thing; heading for Liverpool, under 10 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it is noticed soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Sutton Heath
Anywhere it has stopped in Sutton Heath — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by Thatto Heath Library — our van comes to your car. The work rests on three replies, and we ask for before all else — what went in, the quantity, and if the motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is drained, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, your system is primed with new diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway in Sutton Heath or in a bay outside Thatto Heath. Before we leave, our technicians make sure it's running properly with clean diesel in. We do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Sutton Heath itself
Sutton Heath is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the lakeside with an elevation of around 60 metres. Sutton Heath is located approximately 9.7 miles from Liverpool and is part of the larger North West region. Sutton Heath has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterized by terraced homes. Sutton Heath is close to nearby places such as Thatto Heath, Nutgrove, and Lea Green.
Sutton Heath and Merseyside: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the WA postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs in Sutton Heath serve much of Merseyside too, Thatto Heath, Nutgrove and Lea Green included. Ring and ask rather than guess when you're by a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you suits Sutton Heath, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, because we empty it there, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Sutton Heath: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat figure would be honest, since each job differs. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind St Austin's Church.
That's why every call from Sutton Heath starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. With them, the range narrows to one firm figure.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Sutton Heath: still beside your car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Sutton Heath or wherever within Merseyside.