Durlock: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the lines — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. In Durlock, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Durlock
Do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and we can see.
- Give us a postcode starting CT12 4, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your car.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run the pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Church Street.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
At a forecourt around Durlock, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the pump. At your own driveway, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, which is how a car filled in Mount Pleasant last night and not switched on stays the straightforward one, provided nobody touches the key.
After it's sucked in, the damage takes two forms. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. Pipes holding AdBlue spell harm by morning for a vehicle sitting around Durlock. Only inside that tank, it stays the same. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol put into a diesel on Esso's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the whole issue. No harm is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your motor works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits back out — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Durlock or out in Hoo, costs more than almost any other error.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever across Kent your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still inside the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Durlock?
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. Rushing, outside Minster Church of England Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the car. Close to Rivers Court, a driver pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Bell Inn.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company car, or the spare motor of a home with both fuels — the cars people use the least. Same mistake, an identical first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Durlock or the remainder of Kent.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Durlock?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been sucked through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Maybe returning from Stonelees Golf Centre, or part way across Durlock, your motor may run lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off instead of testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M2, under 25 miles from Durlock, at the next junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Durlock to the car park by Minster Abbey is a very different job from a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has run, and we do all of it where the car has ended up. Caught quickly, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Durlock
A street beside St Mary the Virgin, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever the car has come to rest around Durlock, our technicians come to it. Three replies decide the job, so first we ask what got in, roughly the amount, plus if the motor has run.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, outside Minster or on a driveway around Durlock. It's tested on new diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians head off. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Durlock
Durlock is a small suburban area on the coast of Kent, situated near the city of Canterbury and close to nearby places such as Minster and The Freehold. Durlock has a population of around 1271 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Durlock sits at a low elevation of 9 metres above sea level, looking out towards the sea. Durlock is located approximately 63.5 miles from London, making it a relatively distant commuter area.
AdBlue drains around Durlock and across Kent
AdBlue call-outs in Durlock are passed to vans that cover the places near it — Minster, The Freehold plus Way — and much of Kent further out, throughout CT postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service suits Durlock, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, since we drain it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Durlock
Because the jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be fair. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Minster Village Hall.
That is why each call from Durlock starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still beside your car in Durlock?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best move there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Durlock or anywhere across Kent.