AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Clock House? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your engine off then leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't blend with diesel. In Clock House, 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. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Clock House
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting CR5 2, or just the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Do not:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your car: the motor stays off.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's wasted.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up Grove Lane.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move your vehicle away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Clock House, whether it is the Esso or elsewhere. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Woodcote overnight and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through if the motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is cleared out. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in Clock House leaves things worse. In your tank only, time costs nothing. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the main issue. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in your tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot simply be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Clock House or out in Woodcote Green, costs more than almost any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Greater London your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Clock House
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's not the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Hurrying, outside Woodmansterne Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Longlands Avenue. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by Jack and Jill.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuel types — the vehicles people use the least. Wherever you're around Clock House or the remainder of Greater London, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Clock House: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been pulled through your filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might appear, maybe midway across Clock House or returning from Ruffet. No starting it again to test: stop once it is safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M23, under 5 miles from Clock House, by the first junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Clock House to the car park by Info Centre is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. If it's spotted soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Clock House: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street by Clockhouse Community Association, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the car has come to rest in Clock House, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else we ask what got in, roughly how much, and if your motor has run, since those replies determine the work.
Next, emptying your tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, if the engine has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by Coulsdon Town or on a drive in Clock House. Before we leave, our technicians check it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Clock House and where it is
Clock House is a locality in Greater London, situated approximately 12 miles south of Westminster, with Little Woodcote, Woodmansterne, and Coulsdon as nearby places. Clock House has a population of around 748 residents and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Clock House sits at an elevation of 126 metres, in the inland setting of south London. Clock House is a small, residential area with a mix of local amenities and services.
AdBlue drains in Clock House and across Greater London
Little Woodcote, Woodmansterne and Coulsdon are among the towns around Clock House that the same teams serve, together with most of Greater London beyond, throughout the CR postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Clock House is a small village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Clock House
No single price would be fair, because each job is different. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind Old Walcountians Association.
That's why each call from Clock House starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Their answers narrow a range down to one number.
You get that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Clock House: still beside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Clock House or anywhere around Greater London.