Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Cranbrook
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your engine. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm begins once it's sucked through your lines — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Cranbrook, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Cranbrook, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Pull the keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting TN17 3, or whichever street lies nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the car just a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it's pointless.
- Even a short distance up High Street is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Moving your car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Cranbrook forecourt you're on, the BP included. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Wilsley Pound last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — but it will be first through if the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it is pulled in, the harm takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A car left standing in Cranbrook with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Murco's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the whole problem. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in your tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Cranbrook or out in Swattenden, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, anywhere your car has come to rest in Kent.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Cranbrook?
Many cars put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and after dark the two may look the same. Nobody intends it. A container picked up when driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Cranbrook Church of England Primary School the refill is rushed. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Carriers Road, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The George, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in Kent, Cranbrook included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cranbrook, and the engine started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from The Ball Field, say, or midway across Cranbrook. Once you safely can, stop and switch everything off — without restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M20, under 15 miles from Cranbrook, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
A quick hop across Cranbrook to the car park by Congregatioal Church is one matter; heading towards Canterbury, under 50 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Long-term damage is very uncommon when it's spotted soon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Cranbrook: what it takes
The car stays where it is, whether that's a street near Gallery 35, a drive, a layby or a forecourt around Cranbrook, and the van travels to it. Three answers decide the job, so before anything else we ask which fluid went in, roughly what quantity, and if the engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is drained, right there. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. Whether it's a parking space at Staplehurst or a driveway around Cranbrook, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs properly before our engineers leave. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Cranbrook
Cranbrook is a village situated in the Weald of Kent, on the River Crane, with a mix of semi-detached housing and older buildings. Cranbrook sits at an elevation of 76 metres, near the villages of Wilsley Green and Bakers Cross. Cranbrook is located approximately 26 miles from Canterbury and 40 miles from London, making it a rural commuter base. Cranbrook has a population of around 2386 people, living in a range of housing types, predominantly semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains across Cranbrook and Kent
Wilsley Green, Bakers Cross and Coursehorn are among the places around Cranbrook that the same vans reach, along with much of Kent beyond, throughout the TN postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Cranbrook is a village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Cranbrook
Because the callouts differ, a single price wouldn't be fair. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open drive is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight space behind Provedence Chapel (Disused).
With that reason, every call from Cranbrook begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Those replies narrow a range right down to one number.
The price is given during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Beside the vehicle in Cranbrook, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Cranbrook or anywhere across Kent.