Bullsmoor: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes when the pump begins drawing it. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Bullsmoor. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bullsmoor
Do these:
- Remove your keys, which stops someone switching the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a EN1 4 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't do these:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition goes on, so leave the car off.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Even a short stretch up Great Cambridge Road is too far to drive it.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
At a forecourt around Bullsmoor, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car clear of the pump. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in Enfield Wash overnight and left unstarted counts as the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when the engine turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. A car left sitting in Bullsmoor 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 each injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water part harms them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the BP. No damage is done while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue separates again out of the diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Forty Hill or the heart of Bullsmoor equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Greater London your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Bullsmoor
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of layouts invite it. Mostly it is not the filling station: someone buys a container heading home and tips it in at home.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Hurrying, outside Capel Manor Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. A driver tips the bottle in outside their house, right off Copse Close, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Pied Bull, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Bullsmoor or the rest of Greater London, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bullsmoor?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may show up, maybe midway across Bullsmoor or returning from Walled Garden. Once you safely can, pull over and switch it off — with no turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
Bullsmoor lies under a mile from the M25; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue further into the system, so heading towards London, under 15 miles away, gives a far bigger job than hopping across Bullsmoor to the car park by St John. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very unusual when it is spotted soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Bullsmoor
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Bullsmoor: a side street near Turkey Street Community Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies shape the job, so first our technicians ask what was put in, about the amount, and if the engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one when the tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue won't flush out unaided. A test of your car comes at the end, after clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, provided your motor hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. Then our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking space by Turkey Street or a driveway in Bullsmoor. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bullsmoor itself
Bullsmoor is a suburban area in the Greater London county, situated near the River Lea and close to the M25 motorway. Bullsmoor sits at an elevation of 28 metres, with Bulls Cross and Waltham Cross nearby. Bullsmoor is characterized by its terraced housing and riverside setting, providing a distinct environment for its residents. Bullsmoor is located approximately 12 miles from central London, making it a commuter-friendly area.
Bullsmoor and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the EN postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Bullsmoor reach most of Greater London as well, Bulls Cross, Waltham Cross and Freezy Water included. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you suits Bullsmoor, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, because we empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Bullsmoor
Since the jobs differ, a single price wouldn't be fair. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Myddelton House Gardens.
That's why every call from Bullsmoor starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Their replies narrow the range down to a single figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still beside the car in Bullsmoor?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Bullsmoor or anywhere within Greater London.