You see, in their effort to make diesel engines cleaner, Mercedes was forced to resort to drastic measures. Again, let's stop it with the bathroom jokes please. That means you too, yes, the guy in the red flannel shirt in the back! The system that Mercedes perfected and that is used on its BlueTec engines makes use of urea, which is stored in a separate tank (we'll tell you later where that goes on the car) and then is injected in the catalyst.
Now the big news is that the engine won't actually run when the urea runs out, which is kind of a problem for users. It's not like you can find urea at any petrol station, can you? The manufacturer says that the 7-gallon tank which comes as standard is good for 10,000 miles, after which you should replenish the urea or your car won't start at all.
In fact, the engine won't start unless there are at least two gallons in the tank. That is why Mercedes dealers are said to put on sale half-gallon containers of urea, using a mess-free store-and-fill bottle, retailed at $7.50 a pop. Also, Mercedes promises to have urea ready on their road assistance cars, along with spare tires and the works.
By the way, in case your wondering where the urea is stored in your Mercedes, try looking in the boot for a spare tire. You won't find any, because the urea tank is in the spare wheel compartment. There's a nasty surprise for you! Looks like going green is taking on a whole new meaning these days.
As an additional task, we'll let you do the research to let you find out where urea actually comes from. Trust us, you'll be surprised. By the way, the technical name for it is diaminomethanal. Put that in your tank and see if your car runs!
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