AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Barnes Cray? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your motor. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing happens until your motor sucks it round. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Barnes Cray. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Barnes Cray, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting DA1 4, or whichever street is closest, and our van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short way down Iron Mill Lane.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it yourself.
Moving the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Barnes Cray forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Dartford Marshes last night and not started remains the simple case, provided nobody touches your key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it touches till it is removed from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny passages. A vehicle left sitting in Barnes Cray with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside that tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates back out — and the following fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Barnes Cray or out in Colyers, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Greater London the vehicle is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Barnes Cray: how it ends up there
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. A bottle bought while heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Haberdashers' Crayford Primary, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Mill Place. Or a driver new to that flap refills your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside Bird in Hand.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same slip, anywhere in Barnes Cray or the remainder of Greater London you happen to be.
Barnes Cray: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Jolly Farmers Open Space, perhaps, or midway across Barnes Cray. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M25, under 3 miles from Barnes Cray, at the first junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Barnes Cray to park beside Geoffrey Whitworth Theatre and a drive of under 15 miles for London are very distinct jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has been run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Barnes Cray: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a street near The City of God, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt around Barnes Cray, and our van travels to it. Three replies decide the work, and so first we ask what went in, roughly the amount, plus if the engine has run.
Next, draining that tank right there takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of your vehicle. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Barnes Cray or in a bay by Slade Green. Before leaving, our engineers confirm it's running correctly with new diesel in. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Barnes Cray
Barnes Cray is a suburban area in the London Borough of Bexley, situated on the banks of the River Cray. Barnes Cray has a relatively low elevation of around 9 metres above sea level and is located near the towns of Crayford and Dartford. Barnes Cray is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is a residential community on the outskirts of London. Barnes Cray is close to several nearby places, including North End and Slade Green.
AdBlue drains in Barnes Cray and across Greater London
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Barnes Cray also cover the locations round it, Crayford, North End and Slade Green among them, and most of Greater London beyond, across the DA postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
Barnes Cray 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 stands, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Barnes Cray: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight space behind Propella.
For that reason, every enquiry from Barnes Cray opens by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, how much, if it ran — before any figure. Their answers shrink a range down to one figure.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still alongside the vehicle in Barnes Cray?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Barnes Cray or wherever in Greater London, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.