AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Wallasey? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble starts once it's sucked through your lines — it will not burn, and it will not blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Wallasey, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Wallasey: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops someone turning the power on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so don't throw it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting CH45 3, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so call wherever you are.
Don't:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Even a short distance along St John's Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move the car away from the island if you are on a forecourt around Wallasey, whether it is the BP or elsewhere. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It doesn't blend. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its fuel from. A motor filled on a drive in Egremont yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but once your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; and, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A car left sitting around Wallasey with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Asda's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the main problem. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, because it does not burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Bidston or the middle of Wallasey.
As with petrol, there is good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Merseyside.
Wallasey: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St George's Primary School the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Leasowe Road. Else, in dim light outside Sheridan's, the car is topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new car, a company vehicle, or the other vehicle of a home with both fuels — the cars people know the least. Same slip, an identical first step — leave it off — wherever you are in Wallasey or the rest of Merseyside.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Wallasey?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may notice your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Wallasey Cricket Club or halfway across Wallasey. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M53, under a mile from Wallasey, by the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system. That's why a hop across Wallasey to park beside English Martyr's Roman Catholic Church and a drive of under 5 miles for Liverpool are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has stopped, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it's noticed soon.
Wallasey: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road beside Wallasey Village Library, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever the vehicle has come to rest around Wallasey, we travel to it. Three replies decide the job, so before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly what quantity, plus whether your engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is drained, right there. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of your car. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the system is primed with new diesel. Whether it is a parking bay outside Wallasey Village or a driveway in Wallasey, that is where our technicians start the engine and you drive off. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on new diesel. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Wallasey, for a moment
Wallasey is a coastal town in Merseyside, situated on the Wirral Peninsula, with Liscard, Poulton, and New Brighton nearby. Wallasey sits at a low elevation of around 13 metres above sea level, looking out over the Irish Sea. Wallasey is a predominantly residential area, with a high proportion of semi-detached housing, and is located close to the city of Liverpool, approximately 3.7 miles away. Wallasey has a population of around 23,819 people, making it a significant urban centre in the region.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, Wallasey included
Over the CH postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs in Wallasey reach most of Merseyside as well, Liscard, Poulton and New Brighton included. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Anywhere your car stands — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Wallasey, a coastal town, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Wallasey?
Each job differs, and so no fixed quote is honest. What shifts the cost is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Saint Hilary's Church.
That's why every call from Wallasey starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. Those replies narrow the range right down to one figure.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Wallasey: still beside the car?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Merseyside, Wallasey too.