AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Battersea? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system pulls it in. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully cleaned where your car stands in Battersea. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Battersea
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting SW11 2, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the car.
Never do these:
- Shifting your car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down Battersea Park Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it yourself.
Rolling the car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Battersea forecourt you are on, the BP included. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to go that way.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the same place the intake sucks from. A car topped up on a driveway in Wandsworth Common overnight and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when the motor runs, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches till it is removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight around Battersea leaves things worse. Inside your tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel running past them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the main issue. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's inside the tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Battersea or out in Chelsea, costs more than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere in Greater London the vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Battersea?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver buys a container driving home and pours it in at home.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Falconbrook Primary School the refill is rushed. A driver pours the bottle in at home, right off Winders Road, as the day ends. Another pattern: darkness, the car park by The Falconbrook, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other car of a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use least. Anywhere around Greater London, Battersea included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Battersea, and your engine started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Christchurch Gardens or halfway across Battersea. No restarting to check: stop when safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M4, under 5 miles from Battersea, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so driving for Westminster, under 3 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Battersea to the car park by Battersea Methodist Church. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Battersea
A road by Royal Air Force Air Cadets, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Battersea, our engineers come to it. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about what quantity, and whether your engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through because what remains won't wash out unaided. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, the system is primed with clean diesel. Then our engineers start the car and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Clapham Junction or a drive in Battersea. It is checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our technicians go. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Battersea and where it is
Battersea is a locality in south London, situated on the south bank of the River Thames, with a low elevation of around 6 metres above sea level. Battersea is close to central London, being approximately 3.2 miles from the city centre, and is near to other areas such as Sands End, Clapham Junction, and Walham Green. Battersea is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, reflecting its urban character. Battersea has a population of around 14,403 people, according to recent estimates.
Battersea and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the SW postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Battersea reach most of Greater London as well, Sands End, Clapham Junction and Walham Green included. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Battersea is a neighbourhood, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Battersea?
No flat figure would be fair, because each job is different. Three things shift the price: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind Christ Church and St Stephen.
With that in mind, every call from Battersea opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Once they are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside your car around Battersea?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Battersea or anywhere in Greater London.