Cuffley: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it is sucked through your pump — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. In Cuffley, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Cuffley
Do:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting EN6 4, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your car just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance down Plough Hill.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
At a forecourt around Cuffley, whether it's the Elliott Motor Company or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the petrol pump. On that drive, your car remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine lets out. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Newgate Street last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. It eats at some metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches until it's cleared from the system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight in Cuffley leaves it worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Then there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and this problem is diluted fuel. Blended through the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless at that stage; using your engine is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay through the following fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, and so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Northaw Valley or the centre of Cuffley equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Hertfordshire your car is sitting.
Cuffley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Cuffley School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. Near Northaw Road East, a driver tips a container in on that drive after work. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Plough, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet motor, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types — the cars people know the least. Leave it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever around Cuffley or the rest of Hertfordshire you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Cuffley?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Home Wood, say, or part way across Cuffley. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Cuffley sits under 3 miles from the M25; if you were on it, exit by the first junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so driving towards St Albans, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Cuffley to the car park by St Andrew. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Permanent damage is very unusual when it's noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Cuffley?
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Cuffley: a side street close to Northaw & Cuffley Parish Council, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the job, so before anything else we ask which fluid got in, about what quantity, plus if your motor has run.
Next, emptying that tank right there takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. What remains from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking space by the nearest station or a drive around Cuffley, that is where our technicians start the engine and you drive off. Before leaving, we check it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Cuffley and where it is
Cuffley is a village in Hertfordshire, situated on the banks of the River Lea, with a relatively low elevation of 76 metres. Cuffley lies within commuting distance of London, approximately 13.9 miles away, and is also close to the city of St Albans. Cuffley has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Cuffley is surrounded by other small communities, including Tolmers, Goffs Oak, and Lucas End.
Cuffley and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the EN postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Cuffley reach most of Hertfordshire as well, Tolmers, Goffs Oak and Lucas End among them. Phone and ask rather than guess if you are by a county line, or anywhere awkward to explain.
No moving is needed. In Cuffley, a village, a mobile service fits: your vehicle is emptied on the spot, be it on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Cuffley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single figure would be fair, because every job differs. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Cuffley Hall.
That is why each call from Cuffley starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Cuffley and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether it ran are all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Hertfordshire, Cuffley included.