AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Widemarsh? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly purged where your car stands around Widemarsh. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Widemarsh, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the amount, so do not throw it away.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting HR4 9, or just the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Do not do these:
- Moving the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Armadale Close.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Widemarsh forecourt you're on, the Asda Express or any other. On your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to travel that way.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in College Hill last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of damage 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 stays there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle parked around Widemarsh. Just in that tank, it stays stable. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Shell, and this problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's inside the tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the following fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Widemarsh or out in Ryelands, does more harm than almost any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits just inside your tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to empty, anywhere the car has come to rest across Herefordshire.
Widemarsh: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it's not the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside Holmer CofE Academy, after the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped in. Close to Golden Lion Close, someone pours a bottle in at home after work. Another version: darkness, the car park outside Golden Lion, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
Rented cars, new cars, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles see it most. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to the same slip, anywhere in Widemarsh or the remainder of Herefordshire you are.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Widemarsh, and your engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through the filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may appear, perhaps part way across Widemarsh or coming back from The Blackfriars Rose Gardens. Once you safely can, pull over then turn everything off — without turning it on again to see. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Widemarsh lies under 15 miles from the M50; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
Hopping across Widemarsh to the car park by St Mary is one thing; driving for Hereford, under a mile away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. If it's spotted early, lasting damage is very rare.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Widemarsh: what it takes
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Widemarsh: a side street near Christadelphian Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, which our technicians ask for before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, because residue will not wash out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, outside Hereford or on a driveway around Widemarsh. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Widemarsh, briefly
Widemarsh is a suburban area located on the River Wye in Herefordshire, England, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Widemarsh sits at an elevation of 56 metres, close to the city centre of Hereford, and is near other local areas such as Moorfields and Westfields. Widemarsh is part of the wider Hereford urban area, with the city's amenities and services within walking distance. Widemarsh has a population of approximately 2661 residents.
Widemarsh and Herefordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Widemarsh also cover the places around it, Moorfields, Moor Park and Westfields among them, and most of Herefordshire beyond, across the HR postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we empty it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Widemarsh, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Widemarsh: the cost of fixing it
No single figure could be fair, since every job differs. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is easier for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind Hereford City Sports Club.
For that in mind, every call from Widemarsh opens by asking the same trio — what got in, how much, whether it ran — ahead of a quote. Given them, the range narrows to one firm figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Widemarsh and still alongside the car?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful move you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Widemarsh or wherever in Herefordshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.