AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Whitehall? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the lines — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. In Whitehall, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Whitehall: the first few minutes
To do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Which product, and about what amount? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call just where you are. Quote a BS5 7 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it's pointless.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Stretford Road.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
The staff on duty at any Whitehall forecourt — the Esso included — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On the drive, your car remains just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same place the pickup draws from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Clay Hill last night and not switched on stays the straightforward case, as long as no one touches your key.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it touches until it's removed completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. A car left standing around Whitehall with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Texaco. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside that tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the following fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Whitehall or out in Crofts End, costs more than almost any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Bristol the car has come to rest, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
Whitehall: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under one flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. A bottle bought when heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The top-up is rushed outside Whitehall Primary School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. A driver pours the container in at home, just off Gordon Road, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by The Kings Head.
Rented vehicles, new motors, fleet vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a home with one of each: the least known cars see it most. An identical mistake, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you are in Whitehall or the rest of Bristol.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Whitehall?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Packers Field, perhaps, or midway across Whitehall. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the car off rather than testing it again. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Whitehall lies under a mile from the M32; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Whitehall to the car park by Beehive Centre is a very different job from a run towards Bristol, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very rare if it is spotted early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Whitehall
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a road near St Ambrose with St Leonard, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Whitehall, and our van travels to it. The job rests on three replies, which we get before all else — which fluid got in, the quantity, and whether the engine has run.
Then that tank is cleared where the car stands, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not wash out by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, provided the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Bleeding your system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting the car comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Lawrence Hill or on a drive around Whitehall. Our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on new diesel before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Whitehall, briefly
Whitehall is a suburban area in Bristol, situated near the lakeside and approximately 2.3 miles from the city centre. Whitehall has a relatively low elevation of 42 metres and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Whitehall is close to other nearby places such as Lower Easton, St George, and Rose Green, and is home to around 11,529 residents.
Whitehall and Bristol: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Whitehall also cover the locations round it, Lower Easton, St George and Rose Green among them, and most of Bristol beyond, across the BS postcode area. Assuming won't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
Whitehall is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Whitehall: the cost of fixing it
Since the jobs vary, a flat price would not be fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Mrs Molly Taylor.
Before any figure, never afterwards, every enquiry from Whitehall begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Given those replies, the range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Our price is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
In Whitehall and still beside the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best move you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran is all we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Bristol, Whitehall included.