Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ash Estates
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Ash Estates. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Ash Estates: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Remove your keys, which stops someone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much volume? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TW17 8, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way up River Ash Estate.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Ask the attendants to help you move the car off the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Ash Estates, whether it's the Esso or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Ashley Park yesterday and never started stays the straightforward one, provided no one touches your key.
From there it does two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. A motor left sitting in Ash Estates with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the BP, and the problem is thinned fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless at that stage; using the engine is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Upper Halliford or the middle of Ash Estates.
As with petrol, there is good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever your vehicle has come to rest across Surrey.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Ash Estates: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A bottle picked up when driving home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Ashley Church of England Primary School. Close to Felix Lane, a driver pours a container in at home after work. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Anglers, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles get it most — rentals, brand-new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types. Same slip, an identical first response — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be around Ash Estates or the rest of Surrey.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ash Estates, and the engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Thamesmead Open Space or halfway across Ash Estates. No restarting to check: pull over once it is safe, then turn it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Ash Estates lies under 3 miles from the M3; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Ash Estates to the car park by Riverhouse Barn is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Roughly 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 come to a stop. If it is caught soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Ash Estates: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest around Ash Estates — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road by Walton-on-Thames Methodist Church — the van travels to the vehicle. Three replies decide the job, so before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly the amount, plus whether the motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together when your tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through since residue will not flush away by itself. A test of the car follows last, once fresh diesel is added and the filter is cleaned or, where needed, replaced. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, if your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. At that point we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Shepperton or a driveway in Ash Estates. It's tested on new diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our engineers head off. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Ash Estates itself
Ash Estates is a suburban area in Surrey, situated on the lakeside with an elevation of around 12 metres. Ash Estates benefits from its proximity to nearby places such as Beasleys Ait, Lower Halliford, and Walton-on-Thames. Ash Estates has a population of approximately 5078 people, predominantly residing in flats. Ash Estates is located near Westminster, which is about 14.9 miles away, and is also about 15.1 miles from London.
Ash Estates and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
Beasleys Ait, Lower Halliford and Walton-on-Thames are among the towns around Ash Estates that the same vans serve, along with most of Surrey beyond, throughout the TW postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Ash Estates is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Ash Estates?
No single price could be honest, because every job is different. What changes the price is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Walton Library.
With that reason, each enquiry from Ash Estates opens by asking the identical trio — what went in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
The price is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Ash Estates: still beside your car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Ash Estates or anywhere within Surrey.