AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woodley? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens till the engine pulls it round. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully purged where your car stands in Woodley. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Woodley, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we will know.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting RG5 3, or simply the name of a street close by, and so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short way along Headley Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
The staff working at any Woodley filling station — the BP included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Earley last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny channels; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Overnight, a car parked in Woodley with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's just in your tank, it doesn't. Then there is the water: it brings no protection to the components that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and the issue is diluted fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat at that stage; using the motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits again — and the next tankful will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Woodley or out in Whiteknights, costs more than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Berkshire the car is standing.
Woodley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside Beechwood Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Beechwood Avenue. Another version: dim light, the car park outside The Chequers, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
Hired vehicles, new vehicles, company vehicles, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least known cars see it most. Leave it off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, wherever around Woodley or the remainder of Berkshire you are.
Woodley: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
Maybe coming back from Woodford Park, or part way across Woodley, your motor may run rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the A329(M), under 3 miles from Woodley, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Woodley to the car park by Woodley Theatre is one matter; driving towards Oxford, under 50 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been run. If it's caught soon, permanent damage is very rare.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Woodley
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Woodley: a side street close to Woodley Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the job, and so first our technicians ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, and if your motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after your tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed right through because what remains will not flush away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as our technicians have started the car, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Woodley or in a space by Earley. Our technicians confirm it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. No garage is needed 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 Woodley itself
Woodley is a town in Berkshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 55 metres, approximately 33.7 miles west of London. Woodley lies near the villages of Woodley Green and Sonning, and is connected to the nearby town of Reading by The Parade. Woodley has a population of around 26503 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Berkshire, Woodley included
Over the RG postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Woodley reach most of Berkshire too, Woodley Green, Sonning and The Parade included. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Woodley, a town, well.
Woodley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, so no single quote would be honest. The price moves first with how long, if at all, your 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 get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Woodley War Memorial.
Ahead of a figure, not after, each enquiry from Woodley opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, and whether it ran. Those replies shrink the range right down to one figure.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our price by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Woodley: still beside your car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Woodley or anywhere in Berkshire.