AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tuffley? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The harm starts once it is pulled through the pump — it will not burn, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Tuffley, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has run. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Tuffley, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- Pocket the keys, and that prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Call right where you are. Quote a GL4 6 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: your engine remains off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not thin it.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up Hill Road.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
On a forecourt around Tuffley, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not 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 a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its supply from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is why a vehicle filled in Tredworth last night and never switched on remains the simple case, as long as nobody touches the key.
Once it's pulled in, the damage takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in Tuffley with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is only in your tank, nothing changes. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Shell, and the problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Lower Tuffley or the middle of Tuffley.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere in Gloucestershire your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Tuffley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is never the forecourt: someone buys a bottle heading home and tips it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill gets rushed outside Calton Primary School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Reservoir Road, as the day ends. One more version: darkness, a pub car park outside The Three Oaks, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, new cars, fleet motors, or the second vehicle in a family with one of each: the least known cars see it most. Wherever you're around Tuffley or the rest of Gloucestershire, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tuffley, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It's been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Perhaps returning from Old Cryptians RFC, or midway across Tuffley, your engine may go rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. No restarting to test: pull over when safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M5, under 3 miles from Tuffley, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, and so heading for Gloucester, under 3 miles away, makes a much bigger job than hopping across Tuffley to the car park by Robinswood Hill Rare Breeds Farm. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been started. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Tuffley: what it takes
A street by Saint Barnabas, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has come to rest in Tuffley, our technicians come to it. The job depends on three answers, and our engineers get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since residue won't wash away by itself. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, at Gloucester or on a drive in Tuffley. It's checked on new diesel to make sure it runs correctly before we go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Tuffley itself
Tuffley is a suburban area located near Gloucester in Gloucestershire, sitting at an elevation of around 45 metres. Tuffley is situated close to nearby places such as Robinswood, Podsmead, and Linden, and is approximately 1.7 miles from Gloucester. Tuffley has a population of around 3950 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Tuffley is also within commuting distance to London, being around 93.4 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Tuffley and across Gloucestershire
Throughout the GL postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Tuffley reach most of Gloucestershire as well, Robinswood, Podsmead and Linden included. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you are close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A mobile service fits Tuffley, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Tuffley: the cost of fixing it
There's no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Well House.
What got in, how much, plus if the engine ran: each Tuffley enquiry opens by asking precisely those, ahead of a figure, never afterwards. Those replies narrow the range down to a single figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear our quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Beside the vehicle around Tuffley, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best move you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Tuffley or anywhere within Gloucestershire.