AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in The Quarry? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully flushed where the vehicle stands in The Quarry. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around The Quarry
Do these:
- Take your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting ST7 8, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Do not do these:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance along Barthomley Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
On a forecourt around The Quarry, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. On that drive, the car remains just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — quite different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A car filled on a driveway in Park End yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though when your engine runs, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches till it's removed from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked in The Quarry. Only inside the tank, it stays stable. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Sainsbury's, and this issue is thinned fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless at that stage; using your engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the next tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of The Quarry or out in Miles Green, costs more than almost any other slip.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Staffordshire your car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in The Quarry?
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs invite it. A container bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Ravensmead Primary School the refill is hurried. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Nantwich Road, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Butchers Arms, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, wherever in The Quarry or the rest of Staffordshire you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in The Quarry?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Maybe coming back from Audley Cricket Club, or midway across The Quarry, the motor may go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, light up the dash or stall. No starting it again to check: pull over once it is safe, then turn everything off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M6, under a mile from The Quarry, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across The Quarry to the car park by Audley Library is a very different job from a run towards Stoke-on-Trent, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very rare when it's caught quickly.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around The Quarry: what it takes
The car remains put, whether that's a road beside Peak Pursuits, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around The Quarry, and the van travels to it. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, plus if the motor has been run: our engineers ask before all else, since those decide the job.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't clear away by itself. Testing the vehicle comes at the end, once fresh diesel is added and your filter is cleaned or, where needed, swapped. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming the system with new diesel comes at the end. After that our technicians start the car and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Alsager or a drive around The Quarry. It is checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our engineers go. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About The Quarry itself
The Quarry is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Staffordshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and a population of around 627 residents. The Quarry sits at an elevation of 129 metres, approximately 6.3 miles from Stoke-on-Trent, and is near other local places such as Wereton and Audley. The Quarry is part of the wider West Midlands region, located about 141.3 miles from London.
The Quarry and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Wereton, Audley and Shraleybrook are among the towns around The Quarry that the same vans reach, together with much of Staffordshire beyond, throughout the ST postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
No moving is needed. In The Quarry, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the car is drained where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
The Quarry: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the jobs differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Audley Theatre.
For that in mind, each enquiry from The Quarry opens by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of a quote. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Our price is given on the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Next to the vehicle around The Quarry, right now?
In that case, do nothing — that is the most helpful move there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across The Quarry or anywhere within Staffordshire.