Datchet Common: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. In Datchet Common, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Datchet Common: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting SL3 9, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Moving the car just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance down Cobb Close.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
The staff working at any Datchet Common forecourt — the Texaco included — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to go that way.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate instead of blending — quite different from fuel. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Old Windsor last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. 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, so it keeps working on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left sitting around Datchet Common with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, so watering it won't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Brands Hill or the heart of Datchet Common alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in Berkshire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Datchet Common?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Datchet St Mary's CofE Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the car. A driver tips the container in at home, right off Homelea Walk, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Royal Stag, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar vehicles see it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet ones, and the other vehicle in a family with both fuel types. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, wherever around Datchet Common or the rest of Berkshire you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Datchet Common, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Through the filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Lion Island or halfway across Datchet Common. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M4, under a mile from Datchet Common, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Datchet Common to the car park by St Mary the Virgin is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once the motor has been started, and we do all of it where your car has ended up. Lasting damage is very rare when it's noticed early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Datchet Common: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Datchet Common — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street by Plastic Playground Wake Park — the van comes to your car. What got in, about how much, plus whether your motor has turned over: our technicians ask before all else, because those decide the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is emptied, right there. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Not run? Then expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. You drive off as soon as our technicians have started it, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Datchet Common or in a space by Datchet. It's checked on clean diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians head off. As the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Datchet Common itself
Datchet Common is a lakeside locality in Berkshire, situated near the River Thames and close to the neighbouring villages of Datchet and Sunnymeads. Datchet Common has a relatively low elevation of 16 metres and is located approximately 19 miles from central London. Datchet Common is predominantly composed of flat housing, which is typical of many areas in the South East region. Datchet Common offers a tranquil setting, with nearby Horton and other surrounding areas providing additional amenities.
Datchet Common and Berkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Datchet, Sunnymeads and Horton are among the places near Datchet Common that the same teams serve, along with most of Berkshire further out, over the SL postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
A van that comes to you suits Datchet Common, a small village: you have no need to take the car to us, because our technicians drain it there, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Datchet Common: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, so no fixed quote would be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Ditton Park Manor.
That's why each call from Datchet Common starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. Given them, a range shrinks to one firm figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody 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 is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Datchet Common and still next to your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Datchet Common or anywhere in Berkshire.