Winwick: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and your ignition too. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble begins once it is sucked through the pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Winwick. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Winwick: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting WA2 8, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to reposition your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so leave the car off.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Myddleton Lane.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
On a forecourt in Winwick, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. 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 rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle filled on a drive in Winwick Quay overnight and not started since is the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches till it is removed from the system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning around Winwick leaves things worse. Inside your tank alone, time costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and this issue is diluted fuel. Mixed through your diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless at that stage; running your engine does the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Longford or the middle of Winwick.
As with petrol, there's good news. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Cheshire your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Winwick
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. No one means it. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Winwick CofE Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Church Walk. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Swan, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles get it the most — hire cars, new cars, fleet cars, and the spare vehicle in a home with both fuel types. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to the same slip, anywhere around Winwick or the remainder of Cheshire you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Winwick?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Asps Wood, say, or midway across Winwick. Stop when safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Winwick sits under a mile from the M62; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up safely rather than carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Winwick to park near Saint Oswald and a drive of under 15 miles towards Salford are very separate jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has stopped. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it is spotted early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Winwick?
A road beside Winwick Village Hall, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has stopped around Winwick, our technicians come to it. What went in, about the quantity, and if the motor has been run: our technicians check first, because those decide the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is flushed right through because residue won't wash away by itself. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the engine has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding your system with new diesel comes at the end. At that point we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay by Newton-Le-Willows or a drive around Winwick. The test before we go is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Winwick
Winwick is a village in Cheshire, situated inland at an elevation of 39 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Winwick lies approximately 12.9 miles from Salford and is close to nearby places such as Hermitage Green and Wood Head. Winwick has a population of around 1718 residents and is located in the North West region of England, about 168.7 miles from London. Winwick is surrounded by a mix of rural and suburban landscapes, with Hulme being another nearby area.
AdBlue drains around Winwick and across Cheshire
The vans that answer AdBlue calls around Winwick also cover the locations round it, Hermitage Green, Wood Head and Hulme among them, and most of Cheshire beyond, across the WA postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
Wherever your vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it there, with no need to take it to us; which suits Winwick, a rural village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Winwick: the cost of fixing it
No flat figure would be fair, since each job is different. What moves the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Warrington's Favourite Car Boot Sale.
That is why every call from Winwick starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Their answers narrow a range down to a single figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the price by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Winwick and still next to the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Winwick or anywhere in Cheshire.