AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bockhanger? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens till your motor sucks it round. In Bockhanger, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Bockhanger, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, which stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting TN24 9, or whatever street lies closest, and the van finds you straight — so ring wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Even a short stretch along Belmont Road is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying that tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car off the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Bockhanger, whether it is the Willesborough Kennington Garages or somewhere else. On the drive, your car stays just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Goat Lees overnight and not started since is the simple case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It attacks certain metals used in fuel systems, working on any part it touches until it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny channels. A motor left standing around Bockhanger with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Sainsbury's, and the problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is inside that tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Whether your vehicle sits in Barrow Hill or the centre of Bockhanger, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever across Kent your car has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Bockhanger: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — can look the same. Nobody means it; many designs allow it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Phoenix Community Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Riding Hill, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by Bybrook Tavern.
Hired vehicles, new vehicles, fleet cars, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least known vehicles see it the most. Wherever you are around Bockhanger or the remainder of Kent, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bockhanger?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It's been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might show up, perhaps part way across Bockhanger or coming back from The Green. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Bockhanger lies under a mile from the M20; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
Hopping across Bockhanger to the car park by Cineworld Ashford is one matter; driving for Canterbury, under 15 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Tell us roughly 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. Lasting damage is very unusual when it is noticed quickly.
Bockhanger: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street beside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has stopped around Bockhanger, our technicians travel to it. What went in, roughly how much, plus whether the engine has been run: we ask first, because those shape the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after that tank is drained, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of the car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, if the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside Ashford International or a driveway around Bockhanger, that is where our engineers start the engine and you set off. Before we leave, our engineers make sure it's running smoothly with new diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Bockhanger and where it is
Bockhanger is a suburban area in Kent, situated approximately 50 metres above sea level and located near the city of Canterbury. Bockhanger sits in a relatively low-lying area of inland Kent, with nearby places including Bybrook, Kennington Lees, and Kennington. Bockhanger is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is home to around 5148 residents.
AdBlue drains across Bockhanger and Kent
Throughout the TN postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Bockhanger serve most of Kent too, Bybrook, Kennington Lees and Kennington among them. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are close to a county line, or somewhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service suits Bockhanger, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, since we drain it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Bockhanger: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Kennington United Reformed Methodist Church.
That's why every call from Bockhanger starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, the range shrinks to a single firm figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the price by phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still beside the vehicle around Bockhanger?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Bockhanger or anywhere within Kent, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.