AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in The Birches? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. In The Birches, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in The Birches
To do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BT62 1, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch along Chalet Road.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
Rolling the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever The Birches forecourt you're on, the the nearest petrol station included. If you're on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it cleans the gas. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Annaghmore overnight and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it would be first through once the engine runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around The Birches with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's just inside your tank, it doesn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the another forecourt nearby. No harm comes while it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only when the motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. 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's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Scotch Street or the middle of The Birches.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in County Armagh your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around The Birches
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs invite it. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. The top-up gets rushed outside the local primary school, because the dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken off. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive close to North Crescent. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside the pub in the village.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a company motor, or the other vehicle of a home with both fuel types — the cars people know least. Same mistake, same first step — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be in The Birches or the rest of County Armagh.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in The Birches?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been drawn through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from the green space at the edge of the village, say, or part way across The Birches. No restarting to check: pull over once it is safe, then turn everything off. Every start pulls more of it through.
The Birches lies over 50 miles from the M77; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
A quick hop across The Birches to the car park by the centre is one matter; driving towards Armagh, under 15 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. If it's caught quickly, lasting damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in The Birches?
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a road beside a street just off the centre, a drive, a layby or a filling station around The Birches, and the van comes to it. Three answers decide the job, so first our engineers ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, and whether your motor has run.
Then the tank is drained where your car stands, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians arrive, provided the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Priming your system with new diesel comes at the end. After that we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space by the nearest station or a driveway around The Birches. It's tested on new diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our engineers go. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About The Birches, for a moment
The Birches is a small locality in County Armagh, situated inland at a low elevation of around 14 metres. The Birches lies near the city of Armagh, approximately 10 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Tartaraghan and Maghery. The Birches has a population of around 555 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. The Birches is located about 336 miles northwest of London, in the heart of Northern Ireland's countryside.
The Birches and County Armagh: AdBlue drains across the area
Tartaraghan, Bannfoot and Maghery are among the towns around The Birches that the same teams reach, along with much of County Armagh beyond, throughout the BT postcode area. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Wherever your vehicle stands — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits The Birches, a small village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in The Birches?
Every job is different, and so no fixed quote would be fair. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, since an open driveway is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight space behind the far end of the built-up part.
Ahead of any quote, never afterwards, every call from The Birches begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. Given them, a range narrows to a single fixed figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In The Birches and still alongside your car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around The Birches or anywhere in County Armagh.