AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Welwyn? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts once your pump starts pulling it. In Welwyn, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Welwyn: the first few minutes
To do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a AL6 9 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not do these:
- Moving your vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way up London Road.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
The staff working at any Welwyn forecourt — the BP among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. On the drive, the vehicle stays exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in The Frythe overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, untouched — though it will be first through if the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
From there it does 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 labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a car parked in Welwyn with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is only in the tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, which is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and this issue is thinned fuel. No damage is done while it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Digswell or the heart of Welwyn alike.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits just in your tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, wherever your car has come to rest in Hertfordshire.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Welwyn: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; many layouts invite it. A container picked up while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the typical route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Welwyn St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School. A driver tips the container in at home, just off Prospect Place, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light by The White Hart, the vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It happens most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first response — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Welwyn or the rest of Hertfordshire.
Welwyn: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through the filter and pipework.
You may see your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Node Way Gardens Community Green or halfway across Welwyn. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the A1(M), under a mile from Welwyn, by the first junction and park safely, not driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further into your system. That's why crossing Welwyn to park beside Van Gogh and a drive of under 10 miles for St Albans are such different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Welwyn?
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Welwyn: a side street near Welwyn Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three answers, which our engineers get before all else — what went in, the amount, and if the engine has turned over.
Right there, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. A test of your vehicle follows last, once fresh diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, if necessary, swapped. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the final step. After that we start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking space by Welwyn North or a driveway around Welwyn. Our technicians check it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Welwyn itself
Welwyn is a village situated on the banks of the River Mimram in Hertfordshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Welwyn sits at an elevation of around 72 metres, within a short distance of the nearby cities of St Albans and Hatfield. Welwyn is close to other local places such as Danesbury and Digswell Park, and is around 22 miles from central London. Welwyn has a population of approximately 2107 residents.
AdBlue drains across Welwyn and Hertfordshire
Danesbury, Digswell Park and Ayot St Peter are among the places near Welwyn that the same vans reach, along with much of Hertfordshire further out, throughout the AL postcode area. Ring and ask rather than guess if you are by a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
No moving is needed. In Welwyn, a village, a van that comes to you works: the car is emptied where it stands, be it on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Welwyn: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Not one single figure would be honest, since each job differs. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Welwyn Civic Centre.
With that reason, each call from Welwyn opens with the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, if it ran — before a figure. Those replies shrink the range down to one number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the price on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the car around Welwyn?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Welwyn or wherever in Hertfordshire.