AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Terriers? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. In Terriers, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Terriers: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Near moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so don't bin it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting HP13 5, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Moving the car even a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance up Kennet Close.
- Draining the tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car off the pumps if you are on a forecourt around Terriers, whether it's the Esso or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Tylers Green last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Terriers with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's only in your tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Widmer End or the heart of Terriers equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Buckinghamshire the vehicle is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Terriers
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's not the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Highworth Combined School and Nursery the refill is rushed. Near Wellesbourne Gardens, someone tips a bottle in at home in the evening. Or someone new to that flap refills your car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Beech Tree.
It takes place most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere across Buckinghamshire, Terriers included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Terriers: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Totteridge Recreation Ground, perhaps, or midway across Terriers. 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 M40, under 3 miles from Terriers, by the next junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
Distance matters: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, so heading for St Albans, under 25 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Terriers to the car park by St Francis of Assisi Church Hall. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Terriers: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Terriers: a side street close to St Francis Of Assisi Terriers, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, about how much, plus if your motor has been run: our technicians check before all else, since those shape the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is drained, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime the system on clean diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, outside High Wycombe or on a driveway around Terriers. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on new diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Terriers
Terriers is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of 177 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Terriers is located near several other settlements, including Hazlemere, Cryers Hill, and High Wycombe, and is approximately 18.4 miles from the city of St Albans. Terriers is also within commuting distance of London, being around 27.7 miles from the capital. Terriers has a population of around 4782 residents.
Terriers and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the HP postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Terriers reach most of Buckinghamshire too, Hazlemere, Cryers Hill and High Wycombe among them. Near a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Terriers, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Terriers: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so no fixed price would be honest. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Totteridge Community Centre.
Ahead of any figure, not afterwards, every enquiry from Terriers opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, and whether the engine ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you hear our quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still next to your car in Terriers?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Terriers or anywhere across Buckinghamshire.