Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tuckhill
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition too. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts until your engine sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Tuckhill, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Tuckhill, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so don't throw it away.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting WV15 6, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance along A458.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
Rolling your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Tuckhill forecourt you are on, the the nearest petrol station or any other. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Broad Oak overnight and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the base of your tank, untouched — though it will be first through once your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; and, because it eats at some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Tuckhill with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is only inside that tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a separate kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so watering it won't work. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other mistake — in Four Ashes or the centre of Tuckhill alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever your vehicle has come to rest across Shropshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Tuckhill
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles waits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Alveley Primary School. Close to Six Ashes Road, someone pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by the pub in the village.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a company vehicle, or the spare motor in a family with one of each fuel types — the cars people know least. Wherever you're around Tuckhill or the rest of Shropshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Tuckhill?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — returning from The Rough, perhaps, or midway across Tuckhill. Once you safely can, pull over and turn it off — with no turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M54, under 15 miles from Tuckhill, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system. That is why a hop across Tuckhill to park near Holy Innocents and a drive of under 15 miles for Wolverhampton are such different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to flush once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. If it is caught quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Tuckhill?
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that's a street beside Quatt Cricket Club, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Tuckhill, and the van travels to it. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, plus if the motor has been run: our engineers ask before all else, since those shape the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through since residue will not flush away unaided. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Finally, the system is bled with clean diesel. You set off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Tuckhill or in a bay by Stourbridge Town. We confirm it runs correctly on clean diesel before we leave. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Tuckhill and where it is
Tuckhill is a small hamlet in Shropshire, situated inland at an elevation of 146 metres, and is located near the villages of Six Ashes and Kingsnordley. Tuckhill has a population of around 579 people, and its housing stock is predominantly made up of detached homes. Tuckhill is close to the city of Wolverhampton, which is approximately 10 miles away, and is about 115 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains around Tuckhill and across Shropshire
Six Ashes, Kingsnordley and Broad Lanes are among the towns near Tuckhill that the same teams reach, along with most of Shropshire beyond, over the WV postcode area. Assuming doesn't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
A mobile service suits Tuckhill, a rural hamlet: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, because we drain it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tuckhill: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Three things shift the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind St Andrew's.
That is why every call from Tuckhill starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Their replies shrink a range right down to a single number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Tuckhill and still next to the vehicle?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Tuckhill or wherever in Shropshire.