Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Darenth Valley
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your motor off then keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts until the motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Darenth Valley, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Darenth Valley
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the amount, and so do not bin it away.
- Call just where you are. Quote a DA2 6 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Moore Close.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt in Darenth Valley, whether it's the BP or somewhere else. On that drive, the car stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps separate rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Bluewater yesterday and never switched on remains the simple one, as long as no one turns your key.
From there it does two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight in Darenth Valley 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 high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the whole fault. No harm comes while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the following tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Darenth Valley or out in Darenth, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Kent the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Darenth Valley: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly takes place outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Fleetdown Primary Academy, because the dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken in. In the evening, a container goes in on a driveway near Redding Close. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Bull, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Darenth Valley or the remainder of Kent, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Darenth Valley?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and lines.
Maybe returning from Darenth Country Park, or midway across Darenth Valley, your motor may run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or cut out. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Darenth Valley lies under a mile from the M25; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why a hop across Darenth Valley to park beside Fleetdown Library and a drive of under 25 miles for London are such different jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. If it's spotted early, lasting damage is very rare.
Darenth Valley: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Darenth Valley: a side street near Fleetdown Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the work, and so before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about the amount, plus whether the engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after that tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush matters far more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't wash away on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Priming the system with clean diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as our engineers have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Darenth Valley or in a bay outside Stone Crossing. Before we go, our engineers check it is running correctly with new diesel in. No garage is required at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Darenth Valley, for a moment
Darenth Valley is a suburban area in Kent, situated approximately 17 miles from central London and near the settlements of Fleet-Downs, Horns Cross, and Stone. Darenth Valley lies in a relatively low-lying area at an elevation of around 71 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Darenth Valley has a population of around 2645 people, and is part of the wider commuter belt around London.
Darenth Valley and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in Darenth Valley are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Fleet-Downs, Horns Cross plus Stone — and much of Kent beyond, throughout DA postcodes. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
A mobile service fits Darenth Valley, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since our engineers drain it there, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Darenth Valley
No flat figure could be honest, because each job differs. Three things move the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind Showcase Bluewater.
What was put in, how much, plus whether it ran: each Darenth Valley enquiry opens by asking precisely those, before a figure, not after. Those answers narrow a range down to a single figure.
The price is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: many include misfuelling.
In Darenth Valley and still alongside the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best move open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Darenth Valley or wherever within Kent, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran.