AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Park? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the engine off then leave your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts until your motor pulls it through. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around The Park. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, The Park: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take your keys away.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting NG1 5, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Even a short stretch up Oxford Street is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt in The Park, whether it is the Sainsbury's or somewhere else. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Meadows 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 drawn it in.
After it is pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches until it is removed from the system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in The Park with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it's just in the tank, it doesn't. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that's the main problem. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left inside your tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in Radford or the heart of The Park, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across Nottinghamshire your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around The Park: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — may appear the same. No one intends it; many layouts invite it. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Welbeck Primary School. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Park Terrace, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Roundhouse Bar and Kitchen, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, new vehicles, company cars, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. Keep it off: that's the first step to the same slip, wherever in The Park or the remainder of Nottinghamshire you are.
The Park: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
Maybe coming back from The Bay of Biscay, or part way across The Park, the engine might go rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or stall. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Leave it off rather than testing it again. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M1, under 5 miles from The Park, by the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing The Park to park beside College Street Centre and a drive of under a mile for Nottingham are very separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been running. If it's noticed quickly, long-term damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around The Park?
A street beside Sky Mirror, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your car has stopped in The Park, we travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has been run, because those answers decide the work.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed right through because what remains won't flush away by itself. Testing the vehicle comes last, once clean diesel is added and the filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians arrive, provided your engine hasn't run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. At that point our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Nottingham or a drive in The Park. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About The Park
The Park is a suburban area located on the riverside in Nottinghamshire, with a relatively low elevation of around 70 metres. The Park sits close to the city centre of Nottingham, being only 0.4 miles away, and is near other notable areas such as Standard Hill and the Lace Market. The Park is predominantly composed of flat housing, which is typical of many urban areas in the East Midlands.
AdBlue drains in The Park and across Nottinghamshire
Throughout the NG postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in The Park reach most of Nottinghamshire too, Standard Hill, Nottingham and Lace Market included. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
The Park is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around The Park
There's no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. What changes the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Park Tennis Club.
Ahead of any figure, not afterwards, each enquiry from The Park begins with three questions: the fuel, the amount, and if the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van heads out, you are told the quote on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. While the van is travelling, dig out your policy: many include misfuelling.
Still next to the vehicle around The Park?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around The Park or anywhere across Nottinghamshire.