Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Weeping Cross
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until the engine sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Weeping Cross, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Weeping Cross, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so do not throw it away.
- Give us a postcode starting ST17 0, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it's wasted.
- Even a short distance along Lynton Avenue is too far to drive the car.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
Rolling your vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Weeping Cross forecourt you're on, the Esso or any other. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and no part of it was meant to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A motor topped up on a drive in Walton-on-the-Hill overnight and not started since counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your motor turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. 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 gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight around Weeping Cross leaves things worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Asda, and this issue is thinned fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and left in the tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't 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 almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Queensville or the middle of Weeping Cross.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever around Staffordshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Weeping Cross: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Anne's Catholic Primary School the refill is rushed. A driver pours the bottle in at home, just off Bodmin Avenue, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light by The Wildwood, your vehicle gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
Hired motors, new vehicles, company vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles see it most. An identical slip, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you are around Weeping Cross or the remainder of Staffordshire.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Weeping Cross, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Yelverton Park, perhaps, or part way across Weeping Cross. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M6, under 3 miles from Weeping Cross, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so driving for Lichfield, under 15 miles away, gives a much larger job than hopping across Weeping Cross to the car park by Baswich Library. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been running. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's noticed soon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Weeping Cross: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest around Weeping Cross — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Saint Anne's Church — the van travels to the car. Three replies decide the job, so first our technicians ask which fluid was put in, about the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking bay by Stafford or a drive around Weeping Cross, that is where our engineers start the car and you head off. The test before we leave is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Weeping Cross and where it is
Weeping Cross is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 94 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Weeping Cross lies near the cities of Lichfield and Stafford, and is close to nearby places such as Baswich and Hillcroft Park. Weeping Cross is located in the West Midlands region, approximately 121 miles northwest of London. Weeping Cross has a population of around 6209 people, according to recent estimates.
Weeping Cross and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Baswich, Hillcroft Park and Wildwood are among the towns near Weeping Cross that the same vans reach, along with much of Staffordshire beyond, over the ST postcode area. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
A van that comes to you fits Weeping Cross, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Weeping Cross?
Every job is different, and so not one fixed quote is fair. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open drive is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Berkswich Community Hall.
What was put in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: every Weeping Cross enquiry opens by asking exactly that, ahead of any figure, never after. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Weeping Cross and still alongside the vehicle?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful move open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Weeping Cross or anywhere within Staffordshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.