Woolaston: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts when your pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Woolaston, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Woolaston: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting GL15 6, or whichever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way up Severn View Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Woolaston filling station — the BP included — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the car just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very spot the pickup sucks from. A motor filled on a drive in Plusterwine yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once your engine turns, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning around Woolaston leaves things worse. In the tank only, time does nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Tesco, and this problem is thinned fuel. No harm comes as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back from the diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Alvington or the centre of Woolaston equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Gloucestershire your car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Woolaston?
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Woolaston Primary School the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Netherend Crescent. One more pattern: dim light, the car park outside Netherend Inn, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, new vehicles, company motors, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it most. Wherever you're around Woolaston or the remainder of Gloucestershire, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Woolaston?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Perhaps coming back from Sandtumps, or midway across Woolaston, your engine may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M48, under 10 miles from Woolaston, at the first junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Hopping across Woolaston to the car park by St Andrew is one matter; heading towards Bristol, under 25 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where your car has stopped, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's noticed early.
Woolaston: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest in Woolaston — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside Saint Andrew — the van comes to your vehicle. Before anything else we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, since those answers determine this work.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue won't wash away by itself. A test of your vehicle comes at the end, after fresh diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Woolaston or in a bay by Lydney. Before leaving, our technicians confirm it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Woolaston, briefly
Woolaston is a small village in Gloucestershire, situated near the coast and approximately 17 miles from Bristol. Woolaston has a population of around 592 people and is characterised by detached housing. Woolaston sits at an elevation of 45 metres, looking out towards the Severn Estuary. Woolaston is close to nearby places such as Netherend, Smallbrook, and Brookend.
AdBlue drains around Woolaston and across Gloucestershire
Netherend, Smallbrook and Brookend are among the towns around Woolaston that the same teams serve, along with much of Gloucestershire further out, throughout the GL postcode area. Guessing won't help close to a county line or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our technicians drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Woolaston, a coastal village, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Woolaston
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things shift the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind Mission Church.
With that in mind, each enquiry from Woolaston begins by asking the identical trio — what was put in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Their replies shrink the range right down to a single number.
Before a van sets off, you hear the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Look at your policy while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle around Woolaston?
Right now, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Woolaston or anywhere within Gloucestershire, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran.