AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Brimsdown? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Brimsdown. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Brimsdown, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting EN3 7, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: the motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, so keep it off.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up Millmarsh Lane.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
The staff working at any Brimsdown forecourt — the BP among them — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. At home, your car stays exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, treating what the motor emits. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It doesn't blend. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, and that is how a car filled in Sewardstone yesterday and not switched on remains the straightforward case, as long as no one turns your key.
After it's sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is flushed out. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Brimsdown with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is only in that tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Texaco, and this problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in that tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Freezy Water or the centre of Brimsdown equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere across Greater London your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to clear.
Brimsdown: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two can look the same. Nobody intends it. Mostly it is never the forecourt: a driver buys a container driving home and tips it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. The top-up gets hurried outside Brimsdown Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken in. Someone pours the bottle in outside their house, right off Mollison Avenue, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Red Lion.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare motor of a family with both fuels. Wherever you're around Brimsdown or the remainder of Greater London, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Brimsdown, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might appear, perhaps part way across Brimsdown or coming back from Prince of Wales Open Space. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Brimsdown sits under 3 miles from the M25; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Brimsdown to park near Howard Gilpin and a drive of under 15 miles towards London are such distinct jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. If it is noticed quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Brimsdown: what it takes
The car stays where it is, whether that's a street beside RSA Interpretation Centre, a driveway, a layby or a filling station in Brimsdown, and our van travels to it. Before anything else we ask what was put in, about how much, and if the engine has been run, because those answers settle this work.
Then the tank is drained where your car waits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The last step is to prime the system on clean diesel. Whether it's a parking space outside the nearest station or a driveway in Brimsdown, that is where we start the car and you head off. Our engineers confirm it runs properly on new diesel before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Brimsdown itself
Brimsdown is a suburban area in the London Borough of Enfield, situated near the Turkey Brook and the Lee Valley Reservoirs. Brimsdown sits at a low elevation of around 16 metres, close to the lakes and waterways of the Lee Valley. Brimsdown is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, with many residents living in apartments. Brimsdown is located near other local areas, including Enfield Wash, Enfield Highway, and Enfield Lock.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Brimsdown included
Enfield Wash, Enfield Highway and Enfield Lock are among the places around Brimsdown that the same teams serve, together with most of Greater London beyond, over the EN postcode area. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
No moving is needed. In Brimsdown, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your vehicle is drained on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Brimsdown: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price could be honest, because each job differs. What shifts the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Community Centre.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: each Brimsdown call opens with precisely that, ahead of a quote, not after. When they are known, a range turns into one fixed figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; settling up happens 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.
Next to your car around Brimsdown, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Brimsdown or anywhere within Greater London.