Vauxhall: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep your engine off then keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens until your engine sucks it through. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Vauxhall. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Vauxhall: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting B7 4, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van finds you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Even a short stretch down Inkerman Street is too far to drive the car.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Get the attendants to help you move your vehicle away from the island if you're at a forecourt around Vauxhall, whether it is the Gulf or elsewhere. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. No part in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Aston New Town last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. 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 running on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A car left sitting around Vauxhall with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on City Clean Autogas's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that's the whole problem. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the car is in Bordesley or the heart of Vauxhall, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across West Midlands the car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Vauxhall
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two may look the same. Nobody intends it. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Vincent's Catholic Primary School the refill is hurried. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Devon Street. One more version: darkness, the car park outside Adderley Park Inn, and a driver using that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in West Midlands, Vauxhall included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Vauxhall, and your engine started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Bloomsbury Community Garden, or midway across Vauxhall, your motor might go lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or stall. When safe, stop then turn it off — without restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the Aston Expressway, under a mile from Vauxhall, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Vauxhall to the car park by Diving Bodies is a very different job from a run towards Birmingham, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Lasting damage is very unusual when it's caught quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Vauxhall
Wherever it has come to rest around Vauxhall — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Red Amber Green — the van comes to your car. The job rests on three answers, and our technicians ask for before all else — which fluid got in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after that tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since what remains won't flush away by itself. A test of the car follows at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the filter is flushed or, if needed, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, if the motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the system is primed with new diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Duddeston or a driveway in Vauxhall, that is where our technicians start the car and you head off. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Vauxhall, for a moment
Vauxhall is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated on the riverside near Birmingham. Vauxhall sits at an elevation of 104 metres, with a mix of residential and industrial areas. Vauxhall is located close to several nearby places, including Nechells Green, Saltley, and Nechells, and is home to a population of approximately 5723 people, predominantly living in flats.
AdBlue drains around Vauxhall and across West Midlands
Nechells Green, Saltley and Nechells are among the places around Vauxhall that the same teams serve, along with most of West Midlands further out, over the B postcode area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No moving is needed. In Vauxhall, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the car is drained where it stands, whether in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Vauxhall
Not one flat price could be honest, because every job is different. Three things shift the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind Touch.
Ahead of any quote, not after, each enquiry from Vauxhall begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the amount, and whether it ran. With them, the range narrows to a single fixed figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Vauxhall and still alongside the vehicle?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step there is. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Vauxhall or anywhere in West Midlands, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.