Bramley: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully flushed where the car stands around Bramley. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Bramley: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Remove your keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so do not bin it away.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting GU5 0, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: the motor remains off.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Even a short stretch along Old Rectory Close is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Bramley, whether it is the Asda or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave it precisely where it stands.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Lordshill Common overnight and not started since is the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your motor turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning in Bramley makes things worse. In that tank alone, time costs nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the following fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Bramley or out in Broadford, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever around Surrey your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Bramley
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Bramley CofE Infant School and Nursery. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to Mill Lane. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by Wheatsheaf.
It happens most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you are in Bramley or the rest of Surrey.
Bramley: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. The filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any might appear, perhaps part way across Bramley or coming back from The Robertson Garden. Once safe, stop then turn everything off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
Bramley lies under 10 miles from the M25; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so driving towards Chichester, under 50 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Bramley to the car park by Bramley Library. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Caught early, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Bramley: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Bramley: a side street near Catholic Parish of Cranleigh and Bramley, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers get first — what went in, the amount, and if the motor has run.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since what remains will not flush away by itself. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your engine hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed the system on new diesel. You set off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Bramley or in a bay by Shalford. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bramley
Bramley is a village in Surrey, situated on the banks of the River Wey at an elevation of around 43 metres. Bramley lies within the South East region of England, approximately 28.6 miles from London, and is near the villages of Wonersh and Birtley Green. Bramley has a population of around 1458 people, predominantly living in detached houses, and is also close to Norley Common. Bramley is surrounded by countryside and has a mix of old and new buildings.
Bramley and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Bramley go to vans that cover the places around it — Wonersh, Norley Common as well as Birtley Green — and much of Surrey further out, across GU postcodes. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
No moving is needed. In Bramley, a village, a mobile service fits: your vehicle is drained where it stands, whether on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Bramley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, and so not one single price is honest. What shifts the price is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind The Robertson Garden.
For that reason, every call from Bramley opens with the identical trio — what got in, what quantity, whether it ran — before any quote. With them, a range shrinks to a single fixed number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still alongside the vehicle in Bramley?
Then, do nothing — that's the best move available. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Bramley or wherever in Surrey.