Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cranbourne
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. In Cranbourne, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Cranbourne: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the amount, so don't bin it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting SL4 4, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: your engine remains off.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Even a short stretch along Crouch Lane is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road isn't worth trying.
On a forecourt around Cranbourne, whether it is the Murco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the pump. At home, the car remains just where it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its supply from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Winkfield overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid waits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — but it will be first through once your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. It eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches till it's removed from your system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. A car left standing in Cranbourne with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the following fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Cranbourne or out in Brookside, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits just inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest across Berkshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Cranbourne
It's not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy 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 forecourt.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Cranbourne Primary School the refill is rushed. Near Montague Park, a driver tips a container in on that drive in the evening. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Winkfield, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Rented cars, new motors, fleet vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same slip, anywhere in Cranbourne or the remainder of Berkshire you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cranbourne?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through your filter and pipework.
Perhaps returning from The Grove, or midway across Cranbourne, your motor might run rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or stall. 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.
If you were on the M4, under 5 miles from Cranbourne, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
A quick hop across Cranbourne to the car park by St Peter's Church is one thing; driving towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage if it's noticed soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Cranbourne?
A street beside St Mary, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your car has come to rest around Cranbourne, our technicians come to it. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, plus whether your motor has been run: our technicians ask first, because those decide the work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, outside Ascot or on a drive in Cranbourne. The check before we leave is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Cranbourne
Cranbourne is a small village in Berkshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 70 metres. Cranbourne lies approximately 23.8 miles west of London, near the villages of Winkfield Place and Plaistow Green. Cranbourne has a population of around 790 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Cranbourne is also close to Woodside, a nearby residential area.
Cranbourne and Berkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Winkfield Place, Plaistow Green and Woodside are among the towns near Cranbourne that the same vans reach, along with much of Berkshire further out, over the SL postcode area. Ring and ask rather than guess when you're by a county line, or somewhere awkward to explain.
Cranbourne is a rural village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Cranbourne: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind The Dragon's Apprentice.
Before a quote, not afterwards, each enquiry from Cranbourne opens with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In Cranbourne and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if it ran is all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Berkshire, Cranbourne too.