Worldsend: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully cleaned where the car sits around Worldsend. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Worldsend: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops anyone turning the power on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't throw it away.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting SY6 6, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up Cunnery Road.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
The attendants on duty at any Worldsend forecourt — the Applegreen among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what the motor lets out. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Battle Field overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of that tank, untouched — but it will be first through once your motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it's drawn in, the harm takes two forms. What is left when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. A motor left sitting around Worldsend with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. No harm is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Hazler or the middle of Worldsend.
As with petrol, there is good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only in your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere your vehicle has come to rest across Shropshire.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Worldsend: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the filling station: someone picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in at home.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside St Lawrence CofE Primary School. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive near High Street. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside Kings Arms, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
The least known cars get it most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare motor in a home with both fuels. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to the same slip, anywhere around Worldsend or the remainder of Shropshire you happen to be.
Worldsend: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Old Rectory Wood, or part way across Worldsend, your motor may run rough, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or stall. No starting it again to check: stop when it is safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Worldsend sits under 25 miles from the M54; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Worldsend to park near United Reformed Church and a drive of under 50 miles towards Wolverhampton are such distinct jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the motor has been run. Long-term damage is very rare when it is spotted early.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Worldsend
Anywhere it has stopped in Worldsend — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by Silvester Horne Institute — our van travels to the car. Which fluid was put in, about the quantity, plus if the engine has been run: our technicians ask first, because those shape the job.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is flushed right through because residue won't flush out by itself. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. Whether it is a parking bay outside Church Stretton or a driveway around Worldsend, that is where we start the car and you drive off. Before leaving, our engineers make sure it is running properly with new diesel in. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Worldsend
Worldsend is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Shropshire, with a mix of detached housing and a population of around 2321 residents. Worldsend sits at an elevation of 194 metres, near the market town of Church Stretton and other nearby places such as Cunnery and Ashbrook. Worldsend is located approximately 28.8 miles from Wolverhampton and 134.4 miles from London, in the West Midlands region. Worldsend has a relatively quiet setting, with the River Severn flowing through the surrounding countryside.
Worldsend and Shropshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue calls in Worldsend also cover the spots round it, Church Stretton, Cunnery and Ashbrook among them, and most of Shropshire beyond, across the SY postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you suits Worldsend, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, since our engineers empty it there, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Worldsend
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things shift the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Church Stretton Town Council.
Ahead of any figure, not after, every call from Worldsend begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, and whether it ran. With them, the range shrinks to one firm figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. As our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Still alongside your car in Worldsend?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Worldsend or anywhere in Shropshire.