Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Blue Town
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts till the engine sucks it through. In Blue Town, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Blue Town: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting ME12 1, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up Charles Street.
- Emptying your tank on your own beside the road is not worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the island if you're on a forecourt around Blue Town, whether it is the Tesco or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. From a dedicated reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It does not combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Marine Town last night and never switched on stays the simple one, as long as no one turns your key.
After it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. A car left sitting in Blue Town 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 protection to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. No damage is done while it stays put, blended into the diesel — only when the engine works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Halfway Houses or the middle of Blue Town.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest around Kent.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Blue Town
It is not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside St Edward's Catholic Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. Close to East Lane, someone pours a bottle in at home after work. Another pattern: darkness, a pub car park by Red Lion, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that's the first step to the same slip, anywhere around Blue Town or the rest of Kent you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Blue Town?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through the fuel filter and lines.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Vincent Gardens, perhaps, or part way across Blue Town. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Blue Town lies under 10 miles from the M2; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Blue Town to the car park by Figurhead is a very different job from a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. If it's spotted quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Blue Town: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The car remains put, whether that's a street beside Figurehead HMS Forte, a drive, a layby or a forecourt in Blue Town, and our van travels to it. The work depends on three answers, which our engineers ask for before all else — what got in, the quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
Then your tank is cleared where the vehicle waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not wash away by itself. Next, your filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a check of your vehicle. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the last step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, by Sheerness-On-Sea or on a drive around Blue Town. The test before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Blue Town, for a moment
Blue Town is a small suburban area located on the coast of Kent, with a low elevation of around 2 metres above sea level. Blue Town sits near the mouth of the Medway estuary, close to the nearby towns of Sheerness and Southend-on-Sea. Blue Town is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Blue Town is situated within commuting distance of London, approximately 38 miles to the west.
AdBlue drains across Blue Town and Kent
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls in Blue Town also cover the spots about it, Sheerness, Mile Town and West Minster among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the ME postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
Anywhere your car stands — a driveway at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Blue Town, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Blue Town?
Because each callouts vary, a flat figure would not be fair. Three things change the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Figurehead.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Blue Town opens with the identical trio — what went in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Once those are known, a range becomes one firm figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Beside the vehicle around Blue Town, right now?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran is all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Kent, Blue Town included.