AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Town Head? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Town Head, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Town Head: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting OL16 1, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the car: your motor stays off.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance down Hunter's Lane.
- Draining your tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
Get the attendants to help you roll the vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt around Town Head, whether it's the Texaco or somewhere else. On the drive, the vehicle stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Spotland Bridge last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight around Town Head leaves things worse. Inside the tank alone, time does nothing. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the following fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Town Head or out in Mayfield, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Greater Manchester the vehicle is standing.
Town Head: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Broadfield Community Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off East Gate Street. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by The White Lion.
It takes place most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Town Head or the remainder of Greater Manchester, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Town Head: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Maybe returning from Ball Street Gardens, or midway across Town Head, the engine may run rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the A627(M), under 3 miles from Town Head, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so heading for Manchester, under 15 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Town Head to the car park by St James'. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been running. Noticed quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Town Head
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Town Head: a side street near Reel Cinema Rochdale, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What got in, about the quantity, plus whether your motor has been run: our engineers ask first, since those decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when that tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not wash out by itself. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, by Rochdale or on a drive in Town Head. Our technicians check it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Town Head and where it is
Town Head is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 140 metres. Town Head lies approximately 10 miles north of Manchester and is close to nearby places such as Rochdale and Newbold Brow. Town Head has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Town Head is part of the larger Manchester urban area, but retains its own distinct community identity.
AdBlue drains across Town Head and Greater Manchester
Rochdale, Mitchell Hey and Newbold Brow are among the places around Town Head that the same vans reach, together with much of Greater Manchester further out, over the OL postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a county line or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
Town Head 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, our engineers drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Town Head: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because each callouts differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. The price changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Marks & Spencer.
What went in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Town Head enquiry opens by asking precisely that, ahead of a figure, never after. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still next to the vehicle in Town Head?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Town Head or anywhere around Greater Manchester.