AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Acton? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens until the engine pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Acton, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Acton: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting W3 6, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: your engine remains off.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's pointless.
- Even a short stretch up High Street is too far to drive it.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
On a forecourt in Acton, whether it is the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you roll your car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle filled on a driveway in West Acton yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor turns, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it reaches till it is cleared from the system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in narrow channels. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight in Acton makes things worse. In that tank alone, waiting costs 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 offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage comes while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, and so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in East Acton or the centre of Acton equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has stopped in Greater London.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Acton?
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap, and after dark the two can look the same. No one intends it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Ark Priory Primary Academy, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the car. Close to Winchester Street, someone pours a bottle in at home after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Windmill, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical slip, same first step — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be in Acton or the remainder of Greater London.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Acton?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it travels 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, maybe on the way back from Mill Hill Park or halfway across Acton. When you safely can, pull over then turn it off — with no turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
Acton lies under 3 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Acton to the car park by Act One Cinema is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it's spotted quickly.
Acton: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest in Acton — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Our Lady of Lourdes — our van comes to the vehicle. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, plus whether your motor has turned over: our engineers check first, since those shape the work.
Next, emptying your tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the motor has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, at Acton Central or on a driveway in Acton. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we go. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Acton itself
Acton is a locality in west London, situated approximately 6 miles from the city centre. Acton sits at an elevation of around 23 metres, with nearby areas including South Acton, Bedford Park, and Acton Green. Acton is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, and is home to a population of around 11,087 residents. Acton is close to Westminster, which is about 6.1 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Acton and Greater London
South Acton, Bedford Park and Acton Green are among the places near Acton that the same vans serve, together with most of Greater London further out, throughout the W postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Acton is a small village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Acton
Every job is different, and so not one fixed price is honest. What changes the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Acton Centre.
Ahead of any figure, not after, every call from Acton opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. Once those are answered, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Acton: still alongside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Acton or wherever within Greater London.