AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Hill? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your engine off and leave your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens till your motor sucks it through. In West Hill, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around West Hill: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so do not throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BS20 6, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Channel View Road.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
Rolling your car off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever West Hill forecourt you are on, the Shell included. On that drive, the vehicle remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. 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 really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the intake draws from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is why a car filled in Woodhill last night and not switched on stays the straightforward one, provided nobody turns the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, attacking whatever it reaches until it is removed from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow channels. Lines holding AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle parked around West Hill. Only inside the tank, it stays stable. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Sainsbury's. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of West Hill or out in Redcliffe Bay, does more harm than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside the tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest around Somerset.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in West Hill?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many designs invite it. A container picked up while driving home and tipped in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside High Down Junior School the refill is rushed. A driver pours the bottle in at home, right off Avon Way, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Windmill, the vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers know the least. Anywhere around Somerset, West Hill included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
West Hill: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Perhaps returning from Blackdown Road Park, or part way across West Hill, your engine may run rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M5, under 3 miles from West Hill, at the first junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across West Hill to the car park by St Barnabas Centre is one matter; heading for Bristol, under 10 miles away, is something else, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. If it is caught soon, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around West Hill: what it takes
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a street beside St Joseph's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around West Hill, and the van travels to it. The work depends on three answers, which we get first — what went in, the amount, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then the tank is cleared where your car sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since residue won't wash away by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Last, the system is primed with fresh diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, outside Avonmouth or on a drive in West Hill. Before leaving, our engineers check it is running properly with fresh diesel in. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About West Hill itself
West Hill is a suburban area in Somerset, situated near the coast and overlooking the Bristol Channel. West Hill sits at an elevation of 79 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. West Hill is located close to nearby places such as Dry Hill, Portishead, and North Weston, and is approximately 7.9 miles from Bristol. West Hill has a population of around 4837 residents.
AdBlue drains around West Hill and across Somerset
Throughout the BS postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs in West Hill reach much of Somerset as well, Dry Hill, Portishead and North Weston included. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service suits West Hill, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in West Hill?
Because the callouts differ, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. Three things change the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Roath Road Chapel.
Before a quote, not afterwards, every enquiry from West Hill opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. When they are known, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
In West Hill and still beside your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is all we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Somerset, West Hill too.