Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Town Head
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. In Town Head, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Town Head: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Tell us a postcode starting BB18 5, or whatever street is closest, and our van reaches you straight — so call wherever you are.
Never do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: your engine remains off.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Cavendish Street.
- Draining that tank on your own beside the road isn't worth trying.
Get the attendants to help you move the car away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Town Head, whether it's the Shell or elsewhere. At home, your car stays exactly where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel that way.
It doesn't blend. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same place the pickup draws from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Long Ing last night and not switched on stays the simple case, provided no one turns your key.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a car parked in Town Head. Only inside your tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Texaco, and this issue is thinned fuel. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in your tank, it causes none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, and so watering it won't work. That is why the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Coates or the heart of Town Head alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, wherever your vehicle has come to rest around Lancashire.
Town Head: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. A container bought while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Gisburn Road Community Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. Close to Sackville Street, a driver tips a container in at home after work. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park by The Greyhound, and someone using that flap the first time.
Rented cars, brand-new cars, company motors, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least known cars get it most. Wherever you are in Town Head or the remainder of Lancashire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Town Head, and the motor started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through the fuel filter, along the lines, and — with any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Clough Park or halfway across Town Head. No starting it again to check: stop when safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M65, under 5 miles from Town Head, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so driving towards Bradford, under 25 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Town Head to the car park by Bancroft Mill. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Permanent damage is very unusual when it's spotted quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Town Head?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Town Head: a side street near Independent Methodist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has been run, because those answers decide this work.
Next, draining your tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. Then our technicians fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay at Colne or a drive in Town Head. Before we go, our engineers confirm it is running properly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Town Head and where it is
Town Head is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Lancashire, with a mix of terraced housing and a population of around 4093 residents. Town Head sits at an elevation of 188 metres, close to nearby places such as Wapping, Barnoldswick, and Croft. Town Head is located near the city of Bradford, which is approximately 19.7 miles away, and is part of the wider North West region of England. Town Head has a relatively small size, with its residents living in a predominantly terraced community.
Town Head and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Town Head also cover the places around it, Wapping, Barnoldswick and Croft among them, and most of Lancashire beyond, across the BB postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Town Head is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Town Head: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat figure could be honest, because every job is different. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Stacked Stone Totem.
Before any quote, never after, each enquiry from Town Head opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. Their answers shrink a range down to one number.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Alongside the vehicle around Town Head, right now?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move you can do. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Lancashire, Town Head included.