Aldwych: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it is sucked through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the vehicle stands in Aldwych. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Aldwych: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a WC2B 4 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Even a short stretch along Aldwych is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the car off the island if you're at a forecourt in Aldwych, whether it's the Texaco or somewhere else. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a dedicated tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. Nothing inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of it was intended to go that way.
It doesn't blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Strand overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — but it would be the first thing through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
After it's drawn in, the harm takes two forms. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. By daybreak, a car parked around Aldwych with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it's just inside that tank, nothing changes. And there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a problem of thin fuel. No harm comes as long as it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in St Giles or the middle of Aldwych.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever around Greater London the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still inside the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Aldwych?
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and after dark the two can look identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it is not the filling station: someone buys a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Clement Danes CofE Primary School the top-up is hurried. A driver pours the container in outside their house, right off Houghton Street, as the day ends. Another version: dim light, a pub car park by Ye Olde White Horse, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, new cars, company motors, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least known vehicles see it most. Same mistake, an identical first response — keep it off — anywhere you are in Aldwych or the rest of Greater London.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Aldwych, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the fuel filter and lines.
Perhaps coming back from Lincoln's Inn Fields Netball and Tennis Courts, or midway across Aldwych, your motor may go rough, smoke, drop pace, light up the dash or cut out. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M1, under 10 miles from Aldwych, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Aldwych to the car park by Bush House Arcade is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under a mile away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. If it's spotted early, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Aldwych: what it takes
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road beside Phoebus driving the Horses of the Sun, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Aldwych, and our van comes to it. The work depends on three answers, and our technicians get first — which fluid got in, the quantity, and if your motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one after that tank is drained, right there. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not clear out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. You head off as soon as our engineers have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Aldwych or in a bay at London Charing Cross. The test before our technicians go is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Aldwych itself
Aldwych is a suburban area in central London, situated on the north bank of the River Thames. Aldwych is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and is located close to notable areas such as Covent Garden and Holborn. Aldwych sits at an elevation of around 41 metres, with Westminster and the Temple area nearby. Aldwych is a densely populated area with approximately 5313 residents.
AdBlue drains across Aldwych and Greater London
Covent Garden, Temple and Holborn are among the towns around Aldwych that the same vans serve, together with most of Greater London further out, throughout the WC2B postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
A mobile service fits Aldwych, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your car to us, since we drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Aldwych: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be fair. What moves the cost is, first of all, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind The Awakening of Australia.
What was put in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Aldwych call opens by asking precisely that, before any quote, never after. Given those replies, a range narrows to a single fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still beside your car in Aldwych?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Aldwych or anywhere within Greater London.