AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Wallbank? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Wallbank, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Wallbank, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and about how much amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Ring right where you are. Say a OL12 8 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Fairway.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
At a forecourt in Wallbank, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Nar 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 pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches till it's cleared from the system. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning in Wallbank leaves things worse. Inside the tank only, time costs nothing. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Texaco. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in that tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the next fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Wallbank or out in Catley Lane Head, costs more than almost any other error.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Lancashire the car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Wallbank?
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two can appear the same. No one means it. Mostly it's never the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Tonacliffe Primary School. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Thorburn Drive, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Red Lion, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the other motor of a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles people know least. Same slip, an identical first response — leave it off — anywhere you are around Wallbank or the remainder of Lancashire.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Wallbank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. The filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might show up, maybe part way across Wallbank or returning from Fern Isle Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the A627(M), under 5 miles from Wallbank, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Mileage counts: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, and so heading for Manchester, under 15 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Wallbank to the car park by St Bartholomew. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to flush once the engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. If it is caught early, lasting damage is very rare.
Wallbank: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car remains put, whether that's a road near Christ Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Wallbank, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run, since those answers determine this work.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. You set off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Wallbank or in a bay at Rochdale. Before we leave, we check it's running smoothly with new diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Wallbank itself
Wallbank is a suburban area situated on the edge of a lake in Lancashire, with an elevation of 227 metres. Wallbank sits near several nearby places, including Fold Head, Broadley Fold, and Whitworth, and is located approximately 12 miles from Manchester. Wallbank has a population of around 3449 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Wallbank is also relatively distant from London, at around 171 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Wallbank included
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs in Wallbank also cover the places about it, Fold Head, Broadley Fold and Whitworth among them, and most of Lancashire beyond, across the OL postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're by a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
Wherever your vehicle sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Wallbank, a residential suburb, well.
Wallbank: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so no single price would be honest. The price changes 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 depends on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Healey Dell Gallery & Studios.
Which fluid went in, how much, and if it ran: each Wallbank enquiry opens by asking exactly that, before any figure, not afterwards. Given them, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
In Wallbank and still alongside the car?
Then, do nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Lancashire, Wallbank included.