Weaverslake: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it is pulled through your lines — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully purged where the vehicle sits around Weaverslake. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Weaverslake: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not bin it away.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting DE13 8, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Even a short way up Upper Hoar Cross Road is too far to drive it.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Moving your car off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Weaverslake forecourt you are on, the Gulf included. On that drive, the vehicle remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Woodlane last night and not switched on stays the straightforward case, as long as no one touches your key.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it stays in there. A motor left sitting in Weaverslake with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. No harm comes while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only when your engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits back out — and the next tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Weaverslake or out in Sandborough, does more harm than almost any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just in the tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, wherever your vehicle has stopped in Staffordshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Weaverslake
Many motors place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two may appear the same. Nobody means it. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Yoxall St Peter's CofE Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. A driver pours the bottle in at home, just off Hadley Street, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light by The Golden Cup, the vehicle is topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
Rented cars, new vehicles, company cars, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to the same mistake, wherever in Weaverslake or the rest of Staffordshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Weaverslake, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. The filter and lines have had it sucked along, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may show up, perhaps part way across Weaverslake or returning from St George's Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Weaverslake lies under 10 miles from the M6 Toll; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Weaverslake to the car park by St Peter is a very different job from a run towards Lichfield, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. If it's noticed soon, long-term damage is very unusual.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Weaverslake
A road beside Wat Mahathat, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your car has stopped around Weaverslake, we come to it. Three replies decide the job, and so first we ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, and whether the motor has turned over.
Then the tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, after fresh diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, where needed, swapped. Engine not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the final step. Then our engineers start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at Rugeley Trent Valley or a driveway in Weaverslake. The test before we go is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Weaverslake itself
Weaverslake is a small village in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 84 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Weaverslake lies near the city of Lichfield, approximately 6.3 miles away, and is also close to other nearby places such as Hadley End, Yoxall, and Morrey. Weaverslake has a population of around 548 residents, who live in a quiet riverside setting. Weaverslake is located in the West Midlands region, about 112.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Weaverslake included
Hadley End, Yoxall and Morrey are among the places around Weaverslake that the same vans serve, together with much of Staffordshire beyond, over the DE postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Weaverslake is a village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Weaverslake?
Not one single figure could be fair, since each job is different. What moves the price is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind All Saints Kings Bromley.
That's why each call from Weaverslake starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, the range narrows to one firm figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Next to your car in Weaverslake, still?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Weaverslake or anywhere within Staffordshire.