Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Abbess End
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and your ignition too. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully rinsed where the car sits around Abbess End. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Abbess End, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about what volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Ring just where you are. Say a CM5 0 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Do not:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's wasted.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up Green Hill Road.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Moving your vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Abbess End forecourt you're on, the BP or any other. On that drive, your car stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Woodend last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it would be first through if the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
After it's sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning in Abbess End leaves things worse. In the tank only, time does nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Applegreen, and the problem is thinned fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits put, blended into the diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, because it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not 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 nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in White Roding or the middle of Abbess End.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Essex your car sits.
Abbess End: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many motors put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it's not the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Rodings Primary School the refill is hurried. Near School Lane, someone pours a container in on the drive in the evening. Or a driver new to that flap refills your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by the pub in the village.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the spare car in a home with one of each fuels — the cars drivers know the least. Anywhere in Essex, Abbess End included, the slip does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Abbess End: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, after passing via the fuel filter and pipework.
You may notice your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Pig's Spring or halfway across Abbess End. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M11, under 5 miles from Abbess End, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so driving for Chelmsford, under 10 miles away, gives a much bigger job than crossing Abbess End to the car park by St Edmund, Abbess Roding. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Abbess End?
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Abbess End: a side street near St Botolph, Beauchamp Roding, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies shape the job, and so first we ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, and if your engine has run.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. After that our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space at Sawbridgeworth or a driveway in Abbess End. The check before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to go to a workshop. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Abbess End and where it is
Abbess End is a small locality in Essex, situated inland at an elevation of around 75 metres, and is located approximately 25.8 miles from London. Abbess End is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is close to nearby places such as Abbess Roding and Beauchamp Roding. Abbess End has a population of around 506 residents and is near the city of Chelmsford, which is about 8.7 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Abbess End and Essex
Abbess Roding, Nether Street and Beauchamp Roding are among the towns around Abbess End that the same vans serve, along with most of Essex further out, over the CM postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service suits Abbess End, a small village: you have no need to take your car to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Abbess End
Each job is different, and so no single quote would be honest. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind St Martin, White Roding.
What was put in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Abbess End call begins by asking precisely those, ahead of a quote, never afterwards. Their replies shrink a range down to a single number.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your policy while we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Abbess End: still next to the vehicle?
Then, touch nothing — that's the best step there is. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Abbess End or wherever in Essex.