Clerkenwell: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens till your motor sucks it through. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Clerkenwell. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Clerkenwell: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Take the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting EC1R 0, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance up Skinner Street.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
Moving your vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Clerkenwell forecourt you're on, the Texaco or any other. On that drive, the car remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the gas. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, which is why a vehicle filled in Angel yesterday and not switched on remains the simple one, provided nobody turns your key.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it's flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Clerkenwell with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is just in your tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Whether your vehicle sits in Pentonville or the centre of Clerkenwell, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere around Greater London the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Clerkenwell: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical story.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Hugh Myddelton Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped off. A driver tips the bottle in at home, right off Woodbridge Street, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Sekforde, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars get it most — rentals, new cars, fleet ones, and the other motor of a family with one of each fuels. Anywhere around Greater London, Clerkenwell included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Clerkenwell?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. Via the filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Spa Fields, say, or midway across Clerkenwell. No starting it again to check: stop once it is safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M1, under 10 miles from Clerkenwell, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so driving for London, under 3 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Clerkenwell to the car park by 3 Corners Centre. Tell us about 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 ended up. If it's noticed soon, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Clerkenwell: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped in Clerkenwell — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Islington Local History Centre — our van travels to the vehicle. Three replies shape the job, and so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid got in, about what quantity, and whether the motor has turned over.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. A full flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not clear away on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your motor has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the system is bled with clean diesel. After that we start it and you head off, whether from a parking bay at Farringdon or a driveway around Clerkenwell. Before leaving, our engineers confirm it's running properly with fresh diesel in. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is a suburban area in central London, situated near the River Fleet and close to the city centre. Clerkenwell sits at a relatively low elevation of around 25 metres, with many of its residents living in flats. Clerkenwell is bordered by nearby places such as Finsbury, Farringdon, and St Lukes, and is home to a population of approximately 21,107 people. Clerkenwell is also within walking distance of the city of London, being just 1.6 miles from the centre.
AdBlue drains around Clerkenwell and across Greater London
AdBlue call-outs in Clerkenwell go to teams that serve the places near it — Finsbury, Farringdon plus St Lukes — and much of Greater London further out, throughout EC1R postcodes. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Wherever the car stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Clerkenwell, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Clerkenwell?
No flat price would be fair, since each job differs. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Unity Rooms.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Clerkenwell begins with the identical trio — what was put in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before a figure. Their answers narrow a range right down to a single number.
Before a van sets off, you hear our price by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Next to the car in Clerkenwell, right now?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it ran are all we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Greater London, Clerkenwell too.