AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in East Molesey? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition too. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm happens until the motor sucks it round. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly purged where the car stands around East Molesey. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, East Molesey: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers will see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting KT8 0, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: the motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch along Spencer Road.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
On a forecourt in East Molesey, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the car away from the pump. On the drive, your car remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its supply from. A car topped up on a driveway in Weston Green yesterday evening and not started since is the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
Once it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in East Molesey leaves things worse. Inside that tank alone, time costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing through them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in that tank, it does none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, and so watering it can't help. Hence the flush matters more, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other mistake — in Thames Ditton or the centre of East Molesey equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Surrey the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around East Molesey
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is never the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in at home.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside The Orchard Infant School the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off School Road. Otherwise, in dim light by The Poyntz Arms, the car is refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere around East Molesey or the rest of Surrey you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in East Molesey?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Via the filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might show up, maybe part way across East Molesey or returning from Pavilion Club. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
East Molesey sits under 3 miles from the M3; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across East Molesey to the car park by East Molesey Methodist Church is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. If it's noticed early, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in East Molesey
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped in East Molesey: a side street close to Refresh, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if your engine has been run, because those replies decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when the tank is drained, right there. A full flush counts far more after AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't clear away on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the last step. Whether it is a parking bay at Hampton Court or a drive in East Molesey, that is where our technicians fire it up and you drive off. Our engineers check it runs properly on fresh diesel before we go. We do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About East Molesey
East Molesey is a village situated on the riverside in Surrey, with a low elevation of around 11 metres above sea level. East Molesey lies close to several notable locations, including Hurst Park and Hampton Court, and is near the neighbouring village of West Molesey. East Molesey has a population of approximately 3670 residents, who mostly live in detached housing. East Molesey is located about 12 miles from central London, with Westminster being the nearest city at a distance of 12.1 miles.
AdBlue drains across East Molesey and Surrey
Hurst Park, West Molesey and Hampton Court are among the towns near East Molesey that the same teams reach, along with much of Surrey beyond, throughout the KT postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
A van that comes to you fits East Molesey, a village: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around East Molesey: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts differ, a single price wouldn't be fair. Three things move the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind St Mary the Virgin Church.
For that in mind, every enquiry from East Molesey opens with the identical trio — what was put in, how much, whether it ran — before any quote. Given them, a range shrinks to a single firm number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still beside your car in East Molesey?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around East Molesey or anywhere around Surrey.