The Wheel: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once your pump begins pulling it. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car stands in The Wheel. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around The Wheel
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and roughly what quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers will see.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting S35 9, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the spot.
Never:
- Moving your car just a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up The Wheel.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any The Wheel forecourt — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, which is how a car topped up in Parson Cross yesterday and not switched on remains the simple one, provided no one turns your key.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches till it is cleared completely. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle sitting around The Wheel. Just in the tank, it stays the same. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Morrisons, and the problem is diluted fuel. Blended into your diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless for now; running your engine is the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just 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 is 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 vehicle is in Wood Seats or the middle of The Wheel.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across South Yorkshire the vehicle is standing.
The Wheel: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Mostly it is never the forecourt: a driver picks up a container heading home and pours it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Rushing, outside St Thomas More Catholic Primary, A Voluntary Academy, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Wheel Lane. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by The Stocks.
Rented vehicles, new vehicles, company motors, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. Keep it switched off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever around The Wheel or the remainder of South Yorkshire you happen to be.
The Wheel: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Through the filter, through the lines, and — with any running — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Whitley Cricket Club, perhaps, or midway across The Wheel. Once you safely can, stop and turn everything off — with no restarting to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M1, under 3 miles from The Wheel, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
A quick hop across The Wheel to the car park by Gatty Hall is one thing; driving for Sheffield, under 5 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it's spotted soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around The Wheel?
Anywhere it has come to rest around The Wheel — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road beside Church of Saint Mary's — our van comes to your vehicle. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if the motor has been run, since those answers determine the work.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. A test of the vehicle follows last, once clean diesel is added and the filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians get there, if your engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the last step. You head off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around The Wheel or in a space outside Chapeltown. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About The Wheel and where it is
The Wheel is a suburban area located near Sheffield in South Yorkshire, sitting at an elevation of 111 metres in a gently sloping landscape. The Wheel is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential development patterns of the region. The Wheel is situated close to nearby places such as Whitley, Ecclesfield, and Grenoside, and is approximately 4.1 miles from Sheffield city centre.
The Wheel and South Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in The Wheel are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Whitley, Ecclesfield plus Grenoside — and most of South Yorkshire further out, across S postcodes. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Asking beats guessing, so phone.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — your drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our technicians drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits The Wheel, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around The Wheel
Each job differs, so not one single price would be honest. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Colley Sports Centre.
What got in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: each The Wheel enquiry begins by asking precisely those, ahead of any figure, not after. With them, the range narrows to a single fixed number.
Our quote is given on the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In The Wheel and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in The Wheel or wherever within South Yorkshire.