AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Tollbar End? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes when the pump starts drawing it. In Tollbar End, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Tollbar End: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so don't bin it out.
- Call just where you are. Say a CV3 4 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Never do these:
- Shifting your car even a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- Many diesels power their pump the moment the ignition comes on, so leave the car off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is pointless.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Siskin Drive.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the vehicle away from the island if you're at a forecourt in Tollbar End, whether it is the Esso or somewhere else. At your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Baginton overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the base of that tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through once your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
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's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. A car left sitting around Tollbar End with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel running past them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Asda, and the issue is diluted fuel. No damage comes while it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the car is in Stoke Aldermoor or the heart of Tollbar End, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in West Midlands your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tollbar End: how it ends up there
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside Stretton Church of England Academy, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. A driver tips the bottle in at home, right off London Road, as the day ends. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside Willenhall Social Club, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that is the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Tollbar End or the remainder of West Midlands you are.
Tollbar End: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Baginton Fields or halfway across Tollbar End. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M69, under 5 miles from Tollbar End, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Tollbar End to the car park by Imagine Theatre is a very different job from a run towards Coventry, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has stopped, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it's caught quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Tollbar End
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Tollbar End: a side street near St Anne's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, roughly how much, and if your engine has turned over: our engineers ask first, because those shape the work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through because residue won't flush away unaided. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, provided your motor has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, by Coventry or on a drive in Tollbar End. Before leaving, we check it's running properly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Tollbar End, briefly
Tollbar End is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Coventry, near the River Sowe, with an elevation of around 73 metres. Tollbar End sits close to nearby places such as Willenhall, Pinley, and Whitley, and is approximately 2.8 miles from Coventry city centre. Tollbar End is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, which is typical of many suburban areas in the West Midlands. Tollbar End is also within commuting distance of major cities, with London being around 82.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Tollbar End and West Midlands
AdBlue jobs around Tollbar End go to vans that cover the places near it — Willenhall, Pinley as well as Whitley — and much of West Midlands further out, throughout CV postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A mobile service fits Tollbar End, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, since we empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Tollbar End: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one flat price could be fair, because each job differs. Three things move the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Midland Air Museum.
Ahead of any figure, not afterwards, every call from Tollbar End opens with three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus if the engine ran. Once they are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Tollbar End and still alongside the car?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Tollbar End or wherever within West Midlands.