AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Weston Park? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system draws it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Weston Park. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Weston Park: the first few minutes
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting BA1 2, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Even a short way up Weston Park is too far to drive it.
- Draining the tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
The attendants working at any Weston Park forecourt — the Sainsbury's among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps separate instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup draws its supply from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Weston overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through if the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; and, because it attacks some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Weston Park leaves things worse. Inside your tank alone, waiting does nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a second kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Gulf and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the car sits in Sion Hill or the centre of Weston Park, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Somerset the car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Weston Park: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up when driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Mary's Catholic Primary School the top-up is hurried. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, right off Weston Park East, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills the car in dim light, parked in the car park by The Old Crown.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the other car in a family with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers use the least. Anywhere across Somerset, Weston Park included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
Weston Park: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Through the filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
Expect rough running, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — returning from the green space at the edge of the village, perhaps, or midway across Weston Park. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M4, under 10 miles from Weston Park, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system. That is why crossing Weston Park to park near Shakespeare Monument and a drive of under 3 miles for Bath are such different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to clean out once the motor has been run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Permanent damage is very unusual if it is noticed early.
Weston Park: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Weston Park: a side street near Temple of Minerva, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those answers settle the work.
Then your tank is emptied where the car stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. A test of the car follows last, after clean diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, where needed, replaced. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The last step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Weston Park or in a space outside Oldfield Park. Before we leave, our technicians make sure it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Weston Park and where it is
Weston Park is a suburban area in Somerset, situated on the outskirts of Bath and adjacent to the lakeside. Weston Park sits at an elevation of 57 metres, with its semi-detached housing stock reflecting the residential character of the neighbourhood. Weston Park is close to other nearby places such as Combe Park, Primrose Hill, and Lower Weston, and is located approximately 1.2 miles from the city centre of Bath.
AdBlue drains across Somerset, Weston Park included
AdBlue call-outs around Weston Park are passed to teams that serve the places around it — Combe Park, Primrose Hill as well as Lower Weston — and most of Somerset beyond, throughout BA postcodes. Ring and ask rather than guess if you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Weston Park is a residential suburb, 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 sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Weston Park: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single figure would be fair, because each job differs. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind All Saints Church.
That is why every call from Weston Park starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Once those are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
The price is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Weston Park: still beside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Weston Park or anywhere within Somerset, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.