Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashford
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until the motor sucks it round. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly flushed where your car stands around Ashford. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Ashford, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Give us a postcode starting TW15 2, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: your motor remains off.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave the car off.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short distance along Fordbridge Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the verge.
Get the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt around Ashford, whether it is the Shell or elsewhere. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part in a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to go that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in West Bedfont overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of that tank, untouched — though it will be first through if the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it's flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car parked around Ashford. Just inside your tank, it stays stable. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting still, it's harmless at that stage; running the motor does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, 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 your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in East Bedfont or the middle of Ashford.
As with petrol, there is good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Surrey your vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Ashford?
Many vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and after dark the two may appear the same. No one means it. Usually it is not the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Hurrying, outside St Michael Catholic Primary School & Nursery, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Church Road. Another version: darkness, the car park by The Kings Head, and someone opening that flap the first time.
It happens most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere around Ashford or the rest of Surrey you happen to be.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ashford?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the fuel filter, along the lines, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may appear, perhaps midway across Ashford or returning from Clockhouse Lane Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Ashford sits under 3 miles from the M3; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Ashford to the car park by Ashford War Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is caught soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Ashford
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Ashford: a side street close to St Michael's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, so first we ask what went in, roughly what quantity, plus if your engine has run.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Priming the system with clean diesel comes at the end. After that we start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay by Ashford Surrey or a driveway in Ashford. It is tested on new diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our engineers head off. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Ashford
Ashford is a town in north Surrey, situated approximately 15 miles southwest of central London. Ashford sits in a low-lying area near the River Thames, with nearby places including Chattern Hill, Littleton Common, and Ashford Common. Ashford has a population of around 24,136 people and is characterised by predominantly semi-detached housing. Ashford is connected to the surrounding area by a network of roads and railways.
AdBlue drains around Ashford and across Surrey
Chattern Hill, Littleton Common and Ashford Common are among the towns near Ashford that the same teams reach, together with much of Surrey beyond, throughout the TW postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
Anywhere the car stands — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Ashford, a town, well.
Ashford: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind Ashford Library.
Which fluid got in, how much, plus if the engine ran: every Ashford enquiry opens with exactly that, before a figure, never afterwards. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside your car in Ashford?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Ashford or wherever in Surrey, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.