Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Bungalows
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once the pump starts pulling it. In The Bungalows, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, The Bungalows: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, which stops someone turning the power on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting S41 8, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Shifting the car just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Even a short stretch along The Bungalows is too far to drive it.
- Emptying your tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you move your vehicle off the pumps if you're at a forecourt around The Bungalows, whether it is the Esso or somewhere else. On that drive, your car remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. No part in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was meant to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools low where the pickup takes its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Upper Newbold last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it overnight in The Bungalows leaves it worse. In your tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, and that is a second form of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a problem of thin fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in the tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, because it does not burn. Deposits and corrosion stay after the next fill, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Whittington Moor or the centre of The Bungalows alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever across Derbyshire your car has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in The Bungalows?
It's not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Dunston Primary and Nursery Academy the top-up is rushed. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive near Littlemoor. Else, after dark outside Nags Head, the vehicle is refilled by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new car, a company vehicle, or the other motor in a family with both fuel types — the cars people know least. An identical slip, same first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around The Bungalows or the rest of Derbyshire.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around The Bungalows?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Derwent Crescent Park, say, or part way across The Bungalows. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
The Bungalows sits under 5 miles from the M1; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across The Bungalows to the car park by Hall on the Green is a very different job from a run towards Sheffield, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has stopped, and once the engine has run there is more of it. If it is noticed quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around The Bungalows: what it takes
A road beside Newbold Library, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has stopped in The Bungalows, our technicians travel to it. Which fluid got in, about how much, and whether your engine has turned over: our engineers check first, because those shape the job.
Next, emptying the tank right there takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. A test of your car follows last, once fresh diesel goes in and the filter gets flushed or, if needed, swapped. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Finally, your system is bled with new diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in The Bungalows or in a space at Chesterfield. Before leaving, our engineers confirm it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About The Bungalows
The Bungalows is a locality in Derbyshire, situated inland at an elevation of 114 metres, approximately 8.9 miles from Sheffield. The Bungalows is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located near other places such as Newbold, Dunston, and Newbold Moor. The Bungalows has a population of around 2744 residents and is part of the wider East Midlands region.
AdBlue drains across The Bungalows and Derbyshire
AdBlue jobs around The Bungalows are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Newbold, Dunston as well as Newbold Moor — and most of Derbyshire further out, throughout S postcodes. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The Bungalows is a small village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around The Bungalows?
Every job differs, and so not one single quote would be fair. What moves the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Newbold Community Association.
With that reason, every call from The Bungalows opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, if it ran — ahead of a quote. With those replies, the range narrows to a single fixed number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
The Bungalows: still alongside the car?
Then, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across The Bungalows or anywhere in Derbyshire.