AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in County Oak? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave your motor off and keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in County Oak. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in County Oak
Do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting RH10 9, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance along Fleming Way.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the roadside.
On a forecourt around County Oak, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to go that way.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — quite unlike fuel. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Three Bridges overnight and left unstarted counts as the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when the engine runs, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow passages and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. Overnight, a car sitting in County Oak with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's only in your tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Petrol put into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the main issue. Mixed into your diesel and sitting still, it is no threat at that stage; running your engine does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Whether your vehicle is in Ifield Green or the heart of County Oak, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across West Sussex the car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in County Oak?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The refill is hurried outside Langley Green Primary, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off London Road. Or a driver new to that flap refills the car after dark, parked in the car park by Gatwick Manor.
Rented motors, new cars, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Wherever you're in County Oak or the rest of West Sussex, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in County Oak?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might show up, perhaps part way across County Oak or coming back from Hydehurst Furze. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M23, under 3 miles from County Oak, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across County Oak to park near TK Maxx and a drive of under 25 miles for Brighton and Hove are very different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it is caught early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in County Oak: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped around County Oak — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a road by Langley Green Islamic Centre & Mosque — the van comes to the car. The job rests on three answers, which our technicians get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because what remains won't flush out by itself. A test of the car comes at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, replaced. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to prime your system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by Crawley or a driveway around County Oak, that is where we start it and you set off. The test before we leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About County Oak
County Oak is a suburban area in West Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of 66 metres, and forms part of the wider Crawley urban area. County Oak is located near several other suburban areas, including Lowfield Heath, Manor Royal, and Langley Green. County Oak has a population of approximately 972 residents, who mostly live in terraced housing. County Oak is also within commuting distance of London, being around 25.9 miles from the capital, and 21.6 miles from the city of Brighton and Hove.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, County Oak included
Lowfield Heath, Manor Royal and Langley Green are among the towns near County Oak that the same teams reach, together with much of West Sussex beyond, over the RH postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No towing is needed. In County Oak, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the car is drained on the spot, whether in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
County Oak: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Green Lung.
That is why each call from County Oak starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Once they are answered, a range turns into one firm figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In County Oak and still next to the vehicle?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether the engine ran are all we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across West Sussex, County Oak too.