Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Church Lammas
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and your ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The harm begins once it is sucked through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't blend with diesel. In Church Lammas, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Church Lammas: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Tell us a postcode starting TW18 4, or whichever street is closest, and our van finds you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: the motor remains off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance along Gloucester Drive.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road isn't worth trying.
The staff on duty at any Church Lammas forecourt — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On the drive, the car stays exactly as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — entirely unlike fuel. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Staines-upon-Thames last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle sitting in Church Lammas. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Sainsbury's's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the main problem. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in that tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Birch Green or the heart of Church Lammas equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever around Berkshire the car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Church Lammas: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Hythe Primary School the refill is rushed. Near Wraysbury Road, a driver tips a container in on the drive after work. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Bells.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the other motor in a home with both fuel types — the cars drivers know least. An identical mistake, same first response — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Church Lammas or the remainder of Berkshire.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Church Lammas?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from the green space at the edge of the village, perhaps, or part way across Church Lammas. Once safe, pull over then turn everything off — with no turning it on again to test. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M25, under a mile from Church Lammas, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Church Lammas to the car park by History of Runnymede. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Caught quickly, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Church Lammas: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road by St Mary, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the car has stopped around Church Lammas, our technicians travel to it. What got in, roughly the quantity, and whether the engine has been run: our engineers check first, because those decide the job.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. What remains from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, if the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside Egham or a driveway around Church Lammas, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Before leaving, we check it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Church Lammas itself
Church Lammas is a suburban area in Berkshire, situated on the lakeside with an elevation of 16 metres. Church Lammas benefits from its proximity to nearby places such as Hythe End, Runnymede, and Egham Hythe, and is located approximately 17.9 miles from London. Church Lammas has a population of around 1491 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Church Lammas and across Berkshire
Over the TW postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs in Church Lammas serve most of Berkshire too, Hythe End, Runnymede and Egham Hythe among them. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you fits Church Lammas, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Church Lammas: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. Three things change the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight gap behind Staines Moor Graffiti Mural.
Which fluid got in, how much, plus if it ran: each Church Lammas enquiry begins with exactly that, ahead of a quote, never afterwards. Those replies shrink a range right down to one figure.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the quote by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Beside your car around Church Lammas, still?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Church Lammas or wherever in Berkshire.