Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Leys
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens till your motor pulls it round. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around The Leys. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around The Leys
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, which stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Say a B79 7 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: the motor stays off.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance up Moorgate is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the verge.
The attendants on duty at any The Leys filling station — the BP included — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the pickup draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Perry Crofts last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. It attacks certain metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches until it is removed from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked around The Leys. Just inside your tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Sainsbury's. Mixed into the diesel and left unused, it is harmless at that stage; using your engine does the harm.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, so watering it can't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Leyfields or the centre of The Leys equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around Staffordshire your car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in The Leys
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody intends it. It mostly happens at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Moorgate Primary Academy the top-up is rushed. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Coronation Street. Another version: dim light, the car park by The White Lion, and someone using that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the other car in a family with one of each fuels. Wherever around Staffordshire, The Leys included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
The Leys: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Via your filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
Maybe coming back from the green space at the edge of the village, or midway across The Leys, your engine may run rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. When you safely can, stop and turn everything off — with no turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
The Leys sits under 5 miles from the M42; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across The Leys to the car park by Christadelphian 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. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. If it's caught early, lasting damage is very rare.
The Leys: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around The Leys: a side street near Saint John The Baptist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, about the quantity, plus if your motor has turned over: our engineers check before all else, because those shape the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one after the tank is drained, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Priming your system with new diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking space by Tamworth or a driveway around The Leys, that is where we start the car and you set off. It's tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs properly before our technicians leave. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About The Leys
The Leys is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 67 metres, with a mix of residential and local amenities. The Leys is located near the city of Lichfield, approximately 6.2 miles away, and is also close to nearby places such as Gillway, Tamworth, and Bitterscote. The Leys has a population of around 5840 people, predominantly residing in flat-type housing. The Leys is positioned in the West Midlands region, about 102.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in The Leys and across Staffordshire
Gillway, Tamworth and Bitterscote are among the places around The Leys that the same teams reach, along with most of Staffordshire beyond, over the B postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
The Leys is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around The Leys
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Central Methodist Church.
Ahead of any quote, never after, each call from The Leys begins with three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus if it ran. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single fixed number.
The price is given during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your policy: many include misfuelling.
In The Leys and still alongside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Staffordshire, The Leys too.