AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Uphill? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off then keep the ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once the pump starts pulling it. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully cleaned where the car stands in Uphill. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Uphill: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call just where you are. Say a BS23 4 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't do these:
- Moving the car just a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along Saint Nicholas Road.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it yourself.
On a forecourt in Uphill, whether it is the Shell or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Nothing inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Purn last night and hasn't been started since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it would be first through if the motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning in Uphill leaves it worse. In that tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the another forecourt nearby, and the issue is thinned fuel. No damage comes as long as it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. 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 your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Weston-super-Mare or the middle of Uphill.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere in Somerset your car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Uphill: how it ends up there
Many cars place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. No one means it. A container picked up while driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Uphill Village Academy, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up your car. Close to Ellesmere Road, a driver tips a bottle in at home in the evening. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside The Dolphin, and someone opening that flap the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, an identical first response — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Uphill or the rest of Somerset.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Uphill?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Weston-super-Mare Golf Club, say, or midway across Uphill. When you safely can, pull over and turn everything off — with no turning it on again to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M5, under 5 miles from Uphill, at the first junction and park safely, not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Uphill to the car park by Uphill Village Victory Hall is a very different job from a run towards Cardiff, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Caught early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Uphill: what it takes
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Uphill: a side street near St Nicholas, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What got in, roughly how much, plus whether your motor has been run: we check before all else, since those decide the work.
Next, emptying that tank right there removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't wash out by itself. Next, your filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of your car. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Weston-Super-Mare or on a drive around Uphill. Before leaving, our technicians check it is running correctly with clean diesel in. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Uphill and where it is
Uphill is a coastal suburban area in Somerset, situated near the mouth of the River Severn and looking out towards the Bristol Channel. Uphill has a relatively low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level and is close to nearby places such as Uphill Manor and Oldmixon. Uphill is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located within commuting distance of major cities like Cardiff and Bristol.
AdBlue drains across Uphill and Somerset
Uphill Manor, Oldmixon and Clarence Park are among the towns near Uphill that the same teams serve, together with most of Somerset beyond, throughout the BS postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
Wherever the car sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Uphill, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Uphill?
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Uphill Methodist Church.
That's why every call from Uphill starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. When they are answered, a range turns into one firm number.
Before a van sets off, you are told our quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In Uphill and still beside the car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Uphill or wherever within Somerset.