AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Ash? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your engine. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Ash. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ash: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- Which product, and about what amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CT3 2, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the car: the engine stays off.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Chilton Square is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
Moving the car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Ash forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply from. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Cop Street last night and never started stays the straightforward case, provided no one touches the key.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches until it's removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow passages. Pipes holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car parked around Ash. Only in your tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the Gulf. No harm comes while it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the engine works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Whether your car sits in Coombe or the centre of Ash, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere around Kent the car has stopped.
Ash: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Ash Cartwright and Kelsey Church of England Primary School. After work, a container goes in on a drive near Pudding Lane. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Chequer Inn.
Hired vehicles, new motors, fleet cars, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least known cars see it most. Same slip, an identical first response — keep it switched off — wherever you are in Ash or the rest of Kent.
Ash: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from The Butts or halfway across Ash. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M20, under 15 miles from Ash, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Ash to the car park by St Nicholas is a very different job from a run towards Canterbury, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been run. Long-term damage is very unusual when it is noticed early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Ash: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped around Ash — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road beside Staple Village Hall — the van comes to the vehicle. Three replies decide the job, and so before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly the amount, and whether your engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is emptied, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. A test of your car follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and the filter is cleaned or, where needed, swapped. Engine not run? Then expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, by Sandwich or on a driveway around Ash. We confirm it runs smoothly on clean diesel before leaving. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Ash and where it is
Ash is a village in Kent, situated on the banks of the River Stour at an elevation of 19 metres. Ash sits in a rural area near the cities of Canterbury and Sandwich, with nearby villages including Guilton, Weddington, and Durlock. Ash has a population of approximately 1974 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Ash is located 62.6 miles from London and 8.6 miles from Canterbury, making it a commuter village with good transport links.
Ash and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Guilton, Weddington and Durlock are among the towns near Ash that the same vans reach, together with most of Kent further out, throughout the CT postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you are by a county line, or anywhere awkward to explain.
No moving is needed. In Ash, a village, a van that comes to you works: your car is emptied on the spot, whether in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Ash?
No flat price would be fair, because every job differs. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Westmarsh Village Hall.
Ahead of any figure, not after, every call from Ash begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our price on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, dig out your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Ash: still beside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Ash or anywhere around Kent.