AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Derby? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble starts once it's pulled through the lines — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully purged where your car sits around West Derby. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in West Derby
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so do not throw it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting L12 0, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run the pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way along Croxteth Hall Lane.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
At a forecourt around West Derby, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car clear of the pump. On the drive, the vehicle remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Sandfield Park last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. 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, and so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left standing around West Derby with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
A problem of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the EG On the Move. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in your tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It cannot simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, so watering it can't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Dog and Gun or the centre of West Derby alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere around Merseyside your vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around West Derby?
It's not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. A bottle picked up while driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Mab Lane Junior Mixed and Infant School. Close to Exford Road, a driver tips a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by The Deysbrook.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, wherever in West Derby or the rest of Merseyside you happen to be.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around West Derby?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through your filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may appear, perhaps part way across West Derby or returning from Croxteth Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M57, under 3 miles from West Derby, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing West Derby to park near Croxteth Park Miniature Railway and a drive of under 5 miles towards Liverpool are very different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around West Derby
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in West Derby: a side street close to St Timothy, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the job, and so first our technicians ask what went in, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through since what remains will not wash away unaided. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking space outside Broad Green or a driveway around West Derby, that is where we start it and you set off. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on new diesel. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About West Derby
West Derby is a suburban area in Merseyside, situated near the River Alt and close to the city of Liverpool. West Derby has a mix of terraced housing and local amenities, with nearby green spaces such as Dam Wood and Craven Wood. West Derby is located about 4 miles from Liverpool city centre, making it a convenient residential area for those working in the city. West Derby sits at an elevation of 27 metres above sea level, in a low-lying area near the coast.
AdBlue drains across Merseyside, West Derby included
AdBlue call-outs around West Derby go to teams that serve the towns around it — Dam Wood, Craven Wood plus Croxteth — and most of Merseyside further out, throughout L postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
West Derby is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in West Derby?
Because each jobs vary, a flat figure would not be honest. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Croxteth Hall.
That is why every call from West Derby starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. When they are known, a range becomes a single firm number.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Next to your car in West Derby, still?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in West Derby or anywhere across Merseyside.