Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Broomhill Bank
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the engine off and keep your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully flushed where your car stands in Broomhill Bank. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Broomhill Bank, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Take your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, so don't throw it away.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting TN3 0, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Shifting the car just a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way along Lower Green Road.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
On a forecourt in Broomhill Bank, whether it's the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It does not blend. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Stockland Green overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the base of your tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through if the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches until it is removed from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. A vehicle left sitting around Broomhill Bank with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Shell, and the problem is diluted fuel. No damage is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether the car sits in Bullingstone or the centre of Broomhill Bank, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever across Kent your car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Broomhill Bank: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs allow it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Bishops Down Primary and Nursery School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. Someone pours the container in at home, just off Shirley Grove, as the day ends. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside Red Lion, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever around Kent, Broomhill Bank included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Broomhill Bank, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via the filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Hurst Wood, perhaps, or midway across Broomhill Bank. No restarting to test: stop when it is safe, then switch it off. Every start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M25, under 15 miles from Broomhill Bank, by the next junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Broomhill Bank to the car park by St Paul's Church Centre is a very different job from a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. When it is caught soon, lasting damage is very rare.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Broomhill Bank
Anywhere it has stopped in Broomhill Bank — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a road beside Rusthall URC Church — our van travels to your vehicle. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the engine has run, because those answers settle the work.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that's the last step. After that our engineers start it and you head off, whether from a parking space by Tunbridge Wells or a drive in Broomhill Bank. Before leaving, our technicians check it is running properly with fresh diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Broomhill Bank, for a moment
Broomhill Bank is a small locality in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 99 metres, and is located near the communities of Lower Green and Denny Bottom. Broomhill Bank is characterized by its terraced housing and is positioned approximately 29.7 miles from London. Broomhill Bank has a population of around 594 residents and is close to the nearby town of Rusthall.
Broomhill Bank and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Lower Green, Denny Bottom and Rusthall are among the towns near Broomhill Bank that the same vans serve, along with much of Kent beyond, over the TN postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A mobile service fits Broomhill Bank, a small village: there's no need to take your car to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Broomhill Bank?
Because each callouts differ, a single price would not be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Sunnyside Community Hall.
Ahead of any quote, never afterwards, every enquiry from Broomhill Bank opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus if it ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still alongside the car in Broomhill Bank?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful move there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Broomhill Bank or anywhere in Kent.