Burrows Cross: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens till your motor pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Burrows Cross, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Burrows Cross: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the amount, and so don't bin it out.
- Give us a postcode starting GU5 9, or whichever street lies nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Never:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it is wasted.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up Burrows Cross.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the island if you're on a forecourt in Burrows Cross, whether it's the Esso or elsewhere. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — quite different from fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the very spot the pickup sucks from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Gomshall last night and never started remains the straightforward case, provided nobody touches your key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. A motor left sitting around Burrows Cross with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left in the tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the next tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Burrows Cross or out in Abinger Hammer, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Surrey your vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Burrows Cross?
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and after dark the two may appear the same. No one intends it. A bottle picked up when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. The refill gets rushed outside Peaslake Free School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped in. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive near Birches Lane. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Gomshall Mill, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Hired vehicles, brand-new cars, company motors, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least known cars see it the most. Wherever you are in Burrows Cross or the rest of Surrey, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Burrows Cross?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Perhaps returning from Gomshall Marsh, or midway across Burrows Cross, your engine might go lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or cut out. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M25, under 10 miles from Burrows Cross, by the first junction and park safely, not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Burrows Cross to the car park by Our Lady of the Angels is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it is caught quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Burrows Cross: what it takes
A street beside Abinger Hammer Village Hall, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the car has come to rest around Burrows Cross, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if your motor has run, because those answers determine the work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than with petrol. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. Not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, your system is bled with fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking space outside Gomshall or a drive around Burrows Cross, that is where our technicians start the car and you set off. It is checked on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before we leave. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Burrows Cross itself
Burrows Cross is a locality in Surrey, situated near the riverside with an elevation of 131 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing. Burrows Cross is located near several nearby places, including Hoe, Smoky Hole, and Sutton Abinger, and is approximately 24.9 miles from London. Burrows Cross has a population of around 579 residents and is part of the wider South East region.
Burrows Cross and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in Burrows Cross go to teams that cover the places near it — Hoe, Smoky Hole plus Sutton Abinger — and much of Surrey further out, across GU postcodes. Phone and check instead of guessing when you are close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Burrows Cross, a small village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Burrows Cross?
Not one flat price would be fair, because each job is different. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight gap behind Gomshall Village Club.
That's why each call from Burrows Cross starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Their replies shrink the range down to a single figure.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Burrows Cross and still alongside the vehicle?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Burrows Cross or anywhere in Surrey, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.