AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Tudorville? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing happens till the motor sucks it through. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly cleaned where your car sits around Tudorville. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Tudorville, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Take your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Say a HR9 5 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: your motor remains off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it's wasted.
- Even a short distance up Purland is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
At a forecourt in Tudorville, whether it is the Morrisons or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
It does not combine. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Ross-on-Wye last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at certain metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it touches till it is cleared from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow passages. A vehicle left sitting around Tudorville with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that's the main fault. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside the tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay after the next fill, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, so watering it can't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other mistake — in Coughton or the centre of Tudorville equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever around Herefordshire the car has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Tudorville: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. No one intends it. A bottle picked up when heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside St Joseph's RC Primary School and Nursery. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Walford Road, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Prince of Wales.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet ones, and the spare motor of a home with one of each fuel types. Keep it off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, wherever in Tudorville or the remainder of Herefordshire you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tudorville?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been sucked through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each may show up, perhaps midway across Tudorville or returning from Caroline Symonds Gardens. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M50, under 3 miles from Tudorville, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Hopping across Tudorville to the car park by Ross on Wye Bowls and Petanque Club is one thing; driving for Hereford, under 15 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Lasting damage is very unusual when it's caught early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Tudorville: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest around Tudorville — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Falklands War — our van travels to the vehicle. What got in, roughly how much, plus whether the motor has turned over: our engineers ask first, since those decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, by Ledbury or on a drive around Tudorville. Our technicians confirm it runs correctly on new diesel before we leave. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Tudorville itself
Tudorville is a suburban area in Herefordshire, situated inland at an elevation of 61 metres, and is located approximately 11.9 miles from Hereford. Tudorville has a population of around 3418 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Tudorville is part of the wider West Midlands region, and is about 108.8 miles from London. Tudorville is near other local places such as Archenfield, Ashfield, and Merrivale.
Tudorville and Herefordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Tudorville also cover the locations round it, Archenfield, Ashfield and Merrivale among them, and most of Herefordshire beyond, across the HR postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are by a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Wherever the vehicle sits — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Tudorville, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Tudorville: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, so no fixed price would be honest. What shifts the cost is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Korean war.
Which fluid was put in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: each Tudorville call opens by asking exactly that, before any quote, never afterwards. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car in Tudorville, still?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran is everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Herefordshire, Tudorville too.