AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Boughton Aluph? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your engine off and leave your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till the motor pulls it round. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Boughton Aluph. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Boughton Aluph: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can know.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting TN25 4, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance up Church Lane.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle away from the island if you are at a forecourt in Boughton Aluph, whether it's the Wye Motors or somewhere else. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Wye overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, untouched — but it would be first through if your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; and, because it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays inside. By daybreak, a car parked around Boughton Aluph with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is just inside that tank, nothing changes. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running through them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Willesborough Kennington Garages and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether the vehicle sits in Eastwell Park or the heart of Boughton Aluph, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere in Kent your car has come to rest, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Boughton Aluph?
It is not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Lady Joanna Thornhill Endowed Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. Close to Canterbury Road, a driver pours a bottle in at home in the evening. Else, in dim light by The Flying Horse, the car is refilled by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the motors drivers 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 is the first step to an identical mistake, wherever in Boughton Aluph or the rest of Kent you are.
Boughton Aluph: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Through the filter, along the pipework, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's where it has gone.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might appear, perhaps part way across Boughton Aluph or returning from Maiden Wood. Stop when safe. Turn off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M20, under 3 miles from Boughton Aluph, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, so heading towards Canterbury, under 10 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Boughton Aluph to the car park by All Saints. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been started. Permanent damage is very unusual when it is caught quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Boughton Aluph: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped in Boughton Aluph — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Baptist Chapel — our van comes to the car. Which fluid went in, roughly the quantity, and if the motor has been run: our engineers check before all else, because those shape the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when that tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we arrive, provided the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking space outside Wye or a driveway in Boughton Aluph, that is where our technicians start it and you head off. It is checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our engineers head off. As the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Boughton Aluph and where it is
Boughton Aluph is a small hamlet in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 64 metres, and is located near the city of Canterbury. Boughton Aluph has a population of around 513 people, and its housing stock is predominantly made up of detached homes. Boughton Aluph is close to other nearby places such as Boughton Corner and Kempes Corner, and is about 9 miles from Canterbury. Boughton Aluph is also within commuting distance of London, being approximately 50 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Boughton Aluph and across Kent
AdBlue jobs around Boughton Aluph are passed to vans that serve the places near it — Boughton Corner, Kempes Corner as well as Boughton Lees — and much of Kent beyond, across TN postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service fits Boughton Aluph, a rural hamlet: there's no need to bring the car to us, because our technicians empty it there, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Boughton Aluph
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Moat.
For that reason, each call from Boughton Aluph opens with the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, whether the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Those replies narrow the range down to a single number.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Boughton Aluph: still beside the car?
Then, touch nothing — that is the most helpful move there is. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Boughton Aluph or anywhere in Kent.