Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Abbey Wood
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and your ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car sits around Abbey Wood. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Abbey Wood, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SE2 9, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself starts the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Eynsham Drive.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
The attendants on duty at any Abbey Wood filling station — the the nearest petrol station included — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bostall Woods last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and narrow channels; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning in Abbey Wood makes things worse. Inside the tank alone, time does nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the BP, and the problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside your tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Whether your vehicle sits in Thamesmead or the heart of Abbey Wood, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't stay blended, so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just inside your tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere your car has stopped across Greater London.
Abbey Wood: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally 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.
Mostly, it happens in one of 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 Thomas A Becket Roman Catholic Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Bracondale Road. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside Plume of Feathers.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company ones, and the spare motor of a family with both fuels. Same mistake, same first response — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be in Abbey Wood or the remainder of Greater London.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Abbey Wood?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each may appear, maybe midway across Abbey Wood or coming back from Abbey Wood Park. No starting it again to check: stop when it is safe, then switch it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M25, under 10 miles from Abbey Wood, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Abbey Wood to the car park by Abbey Wood Library is a very different job from a run towards London, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. If it is caught soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Abbey Wood: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road by William Temple, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has come to rest around Abbey Wood, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run, because those answers settle this work.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. You head off as soon as we have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Abbey Wood or in a space by the nearest station. It's tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our technicians go. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Abbey Wood
Abbey Wood is a suburban area in southeast London, situated on the south bank of the River Thames at an elevation of around 4 metres. Abbey Wood lies close to several nearby places, including Bostall Heath and Lesnes Abbey, and is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing. Abbey Wood is home to a population of approximately 12,513 people and is located about 10.2 miles from central London.
AdBlue drains in Abbey Wood and across Greater London
Throughout the SE postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Abbey Wood reach most of Greater London as well, Bostall Heath, Lesnes Abbey and West Thamesmead among them. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
Wherever the car sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Abbey Wood, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Abbey Wood?
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of your car, because an open drive is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight space behind St Benet Catholic Church.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: each Abbey Wood call opens by asking exactly that, ahead of any figure, never after. With those replies, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
The price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
In Abbey Wood and still next to your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Abbey Wood or anywhere around Greater London.