AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Upper Witton? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens until your engine pulls it through. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car stands around Upper Witton. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Upper Witton: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Take your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting B23 7, or simply the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift your vehicle.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't thin it.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up Faulkners Farm Drive.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
Get the attendants to help you roll your car off the island if you're at a forecourt around Upper Witton, whether it is the BP or elsewhere. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. From a separate tank it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It does not combine. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the pickup draws from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is how a car filled in Short Heath yesterday and not switched on remains the straightforward one, as long as no one turns the key.
After it's drawn 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, and so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight around Upper Witton makes things worse. In that tank only, time does nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed into the diesel and left unused, it's no threat at that stage; running your motor does the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Whether the car is in Perry or the heart of Upper Witton, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has stopped across West Midlands.
Upper Witton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Marsh Hill Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. Close to Gipsy Lane, a driver tips a container in at home in the evening. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park by The Safe Harbour.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same slip, anywhere in Upper Witton or the rest of West Midlands you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Upper Witton?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Via the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any might appear, perhaps midway across Upper Witton or coming back from Witton Lakes. No restarting to test: stop when it is safe, then switch it off. Every start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M6, under a mile from Upper Witton, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
Hopping across Upper Witton to the car park by Granville Street Memorial is one thing; driving towards Birmingham, under 5 miles away, is something else, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Long-term damage is very unusual if it is noticed early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Upper Witton: what it takes
A street beside George Road Baptist Church, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your car has stopped around Upper Witton, our engineers come to it. Which fluid got in, about how much, plus if the engine has been run: we check before all else, because those decide the job.
Next, emptying your tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers arrive, provided your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. Then we start the engine and you drive off, whether from a parking space by Witton or a driveway in Upper Witton. It's checked on fresh diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians head off. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Upper Witton
Upper Witton is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the lakeside and approximately 108 metres above sea level. Upper Witton lies close to the city of Birmingham, about 3.6 miles from the city centre, and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Stockland Green and Perry Common. Upper Witton has a population of around 6869 people and predominantly features semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Upper Witton and across West Midlands
AdBlue call-outs around Upper Witton go to vans that serve the towns around it — Stockland Green, Perry Common plus Witton — and most of West Midlands beyond, across B postcodes. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you're by a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
No towing is needed. In Upper Witton, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your vehicle is drained where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Upper Witton: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price could be honest, since each job is different. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Perry Common Library.
That is why each call from Upper Witton starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, the range shrinks to one fixed number.
The quote is given during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Beside the car around Upper Witton, right now?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Upper Witton or anywhere in West Midlands.