AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Tamworth? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully purged where the car stands in Tamworth. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Tamworth: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting B79 7, or whichever street is closest, and our van finds you directly — so call wherever you stand.
Don't:
- Shifting the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Even a short stretch along George Street is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
The staff on duty at any Tamworth filling station — the BP among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its supply from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, which is why a vehicle filled in Bolehall yesterday and not switched on remains the simple case, provided nobody touches your key.
After it is sucked in, the harm takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and narrow passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it remains in there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting overnight around Tamworth makes it worse. In that tank alone, waiting does nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the main fault. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the next fill, and AdBlue separates back from your diesel, and so watering it can't help. That is why the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Kettlebrook or the centre of Tamworth equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just inside your tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, anywhere your car has stopped around Staffordshire.
Tamworth: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and after dark the two may look the same. No one means it. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Moorgate Primary Academy, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. Near Victoria Road, a driver pours a bottle in at home in the evening. One more version: darkness, a pub car park by The Phoenix, and someone using that flap the first time.
Hired cars, brand-new cars, company cars, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known vehicles see it the most. Wherever you're around Tamworth or the rest of Staffordshire, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Tamworth?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. The filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Maybe returning from Castle Grounds, or part way across Tamworth, your engine may go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or cut out. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Tamworth sits under 3 miles from the M42; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Tamworth to the car park by Saint Editha's Community Church Hall is a very different job from a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. When it is spotted soon, lasting damage is very unusual.
Tamworth: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a street beside Ankerside Shopping Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Tamworth, and the van travels to it. Which fluid was put in, roughly how much, plus whether your engine has been run: our technicians ask before all else, since those decide the work.
Then that tank is emptied where your car waits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the vehicle comes at the end, after clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets flushed or, where necessary, swapped. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the system with new diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by the nearest station or on a driveway in Tamworth. Our technicians confirm it runs properly on fresh diesel before leaving. No workshop is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Tamworth, for a moment
Tamworth is a town situated in the West Midlands region of England, on the banks of the River Tame at an elevation of 67 metres. Tamworth lies approximately 6.6 miles from the city of Lichfield and is surrounded by nearby places such as Gillway, The Leys, and Bitterscote. Tamworth has a population of around 20687 people and is characterised by its predominant semi-detached housing stock. Tamworth is located about 102.3 miles northwest of London, making it a significant settlement in the area.
Tamworth and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Tamworth also cover the spots about it, Gillway, The Leys and Bitterscote among them, and most of Staffordshire beyond, across the B postcode area. Guessing won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
A van that comes to you fits Tamworth, a riverside town: you have no need to take the car to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Tamworth
Every job differs, and so not one fixed price would be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the engine 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 technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Market Place.
Before any quote, never after, every call from Tamworth begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, and whether it ran. Once they are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still next to the vehicle around Tamworth?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Tamworth or anywhere in Staffordshire.