Camber: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes when the pump begins pulling it. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully rinsed where the car stands in Camber. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Camber: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting TN31 7, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Moving the car just a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Even a short way down First Avenue is too far to drive it.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
The staff on duty at any Camber filling station — the Murco among them — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It drops, because it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its supply from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is why a car filled in Rye last night and never started remains the straightforward one, as long as nobody turns the key.
After it is sucked in, the harm takes two forms. 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 working on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting till morning around Camber leaves things worse. Inside your tank alone, time costs nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Usher Motors and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's inside your tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Houghton Green or the centre of Camber, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in East Sussex the vehicle is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Camber?
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Rye Community Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Dunes Avenue. Else, after dark outside The Owl, the car gets topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle in a family with both fuels — the cars people use least. Keep it switched off: that is the first response to the same slip, anywhere around Camber or the rest of East Sussex you happen to be.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Camber?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Via the filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
You may see your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Rye Golf Club or halfway across Camber. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M20, under 15 miles from Camber, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
A quick hop across Camber to the car park by St Thomas the Apostle is one matter; driving towards Canterbury, under 50 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has come to a stop, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. If it's caught soon, lasting damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Camber?
The car stays where it is, whether that is a road beside Oasis Leisure Centre, a drive, a layby or a filling station in Camber, and the van comes to it. Three replies decide the job, and so first our engineers ask which fluid got in, roughly what quantity, plus whether your engine has turned over.
Then the tank is emptied where the car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not wash out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming your system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it's a parking space by Rye or a drive in Camber, that is where our engineers fire it up and you head off. Before we leave, our engineers confirm it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Camber itself
Camber is a small coastal village in East Sussex, situated near the Kent border and close to the towns of Rye and Winchelsea. Camber sits on the edge of Romney Marsh, at a low elevation of around 2 metres, and is surrounded by scenic beaches and nature reserves. Camber is characterised by its detached housing and quiet, rural atmosphere, with nearby places including Jurys Gap and Rye Harbour. Camber is also within commuting distance of larger cities like Canterbury and London.
AdBlue drains across Camber and East Sussex
The vans that answer AdBlue calls in Camber also cover the locations about it, Jurys Gap, Rye Harbour and East Guldeford among them, and most of East Sussex beyond, across the TN postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess if you are by a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Camber, a coastal village, well.
Camber: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single figure could be fair, since every job is different. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind Red-Roofed Hut.
That is why every call from Camber starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. With them, a range narrows to a single firm number.
You hear that price 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 plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In Camber and still next to the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Camber or anywhere around East Sussex.