AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Temple Cowley? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it's pulled through your pump — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. In Temple Cowley, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Temple Cowley, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so do not throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting OX4 2, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch down Cedar Court.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
Moving the vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Temple Cowley forecourt you're on, the BP included. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It does not combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Littlemore overnight and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of your tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through once your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
Once it is pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car sitting around Temple Cowley. Just in the tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Shell, and this problem is diluted fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car sits in Iffley or the heart of Temple Cowley, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, anywhere your car has stopped around Oxfordshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Temple Cowley
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs allow it. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone buys a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up gets rushed outside Our Lady's Roman Catholic Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken off. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to Oxford Road. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Cowley Workers Social Club.
Hired cars, brand-new motors, company vehicles, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. Same slip, same first step — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be in Temple Cowley or the remainder of Oxfordshire.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Temple Cowley, and the motor started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
Maybe returning from Gaisford Road Recreation Ground, or midway across Temple Cowley, the motor may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or stall. Once safe, stop and switch it off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the Wheatley Spur, under 5 miles from Temple Cowley, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Temple Cowley to the car park by Grace Church Cowley is a very different job from a run towards Oxford, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's caught soon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Temple Cowley: what it takes
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Temple Cowley: a side street near Cowley Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and if the motor has run, since those replies settle this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after your tank is emptied, right there. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to bleed the system on new diesel. You drive off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Temple Cowley or in a bay outside Oxford. Before leaving, our engineers make sure it's running correctly with clean diesel in. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Temple Cowley, for a moment
Temple Cowley is a suburban area located on the eastern edge of Oxford, situated near the River Thames at an elevation of around 75 metres. Temple Cowley sits close to several other residential areas, including Florence Park, Cowley, and Rose Hill, and is approximately 2.3 miles from Oxford city centre. Temple Cowley has a population of around 10,020 people and is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Temple Cowley is also within commuting distance of London, being around 49.1 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains around Temple Cowley and across Oxfordshire
The vans that answer AdBlue calls in Temple Cowley also cover the locations about it, Florence Park, Cowley and Rose Hill among them, and most of Oxfordshire beyond, across the OX postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Temple Cowley, a residential suburb, well.
Temple Cowley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, and so not one single quote would be honest. Three things move the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind New Testament Church of God.
Which fluid was put in, how much, and whether it ran: each Temple Cowley enquiry opens with precisely that, ahead of any quote, never afterwards. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
The price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Temple Cowley: still alongside your car?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Temple Cowley or anywhere within Oxfordshire.