Ash: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The harm begins once it is sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. In Ash, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ash: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull the keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and about what volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting GU12 6, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way along Alexandra Road.
- Emptying that tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Rolling the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Ash forecourt you are on, the JET or any other. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. A motor filled on a drive in Wyke overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine runs, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches until it is cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Ash with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's only inside that tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, and that is a separate kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the BP, and the issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside your tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the next tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Ash or out in Montgomery Lines, costs more than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever around Surrey the vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Ash
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody means it. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The top-up is hurried outside Walsh CofE Junior School, because your dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken in. Close to Ash Lodge Close, someone tips a bottle in at home after work. Otherwise, after dark outside The Greyhound, your vehicle is topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
Hired cars, new motors, fleet cars, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. Wherever around Surrey, Ash included, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: keep it switched off.
Ash: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Via your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may show up, perhaps part way across Ash or returning from Shawfield Recreation Ground. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M3, under 5 miles from Ash, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
Hopping across Ash to the car park by Ash Library is one thing; driving towards Chichester, under 50 miles away, is something else, because each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Caught soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Ash?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Ash: a side street near Primrose Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if the motor has been run, because those replies decide the work.
Next, draining the tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. The fuel system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, the filter: cleaned, or replaced if it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, if the engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Lastly, the system is primed with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, at the nearest station or on a driveway around Ash. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Ash itself
Ash is a village in Surrey, situated lakeside at an elevation of 77 metres, with Ash Green and North Town nearby. Ash has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and its population is around 3717 residents. Ash is located near the larger town of Tongham and is within commuting distance of London, being approximately 31.5 miles away. Ash also lies close to the city of Chichester, which is about 28.4 miles to the south.
Ash and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
Ash Green, North Town and Tongham are among the places near Ash that the same teams serve, together with much of Surrey beyond, over the GU postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you're by a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
A van that comes to you suits Ash, a village: there's no need to bring the car to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Ash?
Since the jobs differ, a single figure would not be honest. What shifts the price is, first of all, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Catholic Church of The Holy Angels.
What got in, how much, plus if it ran: each Ash call opens by asking exactly those, ahead of any quote, not afterwards. When they are answered, a range turns into a single firm number.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our price by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Ash and still alongside your car?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Ash or anywhere in Surrey.