Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastcote
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off and leave the ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it is sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Eastcote, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Eastcote
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting NN12 8, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch up The Close.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
Rolling the vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Eastcote forecourt you're on, the Shell included. On that drive, the car stays exactly as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, where it cleans the gas. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Fosters Booth last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of harm follow 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, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting overnight in Eastcote leaves things worse. Inside that tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing through them, and so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on BP's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that's the main problem. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the following fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Eastcote or out in Cold Higham, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere in Northamptonshire your car sits.
Eastcote: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. It usually happens outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Pattishall Church of England Primary School the refill is rushed. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Gayton Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Eastcote Arms, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a fleet vehicle, or the spare motor of a home with one of each fuel types — the cars people know the least. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to the same slip, anywhere in Eastcote or the remainder of Northamptonshire you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Eastcote?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — returning from Cornhill Wood, say, or midway across Eastcote. No restarting to check: pull over when it is safe, then switch everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M1, under 5 miles from Eastcote, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Eastcote to the car park by Pattishall Parish Hall is a very different job from a run towards Milton Keynes, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once the engine has been run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Long-term damage is very rare if it's caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Eastcote?
Wherever it has stopped in Eastcote — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Holy Cross Pattishall — our van travels to your car. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run, since those answers settle this work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after that tank is emptied, right there. Residue from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the final step. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, outside Northampton or on a drive in Eastcote. Before leaving, our engineers check it is running correctly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Eastcote
Eastcote is a small village in Northamptonshire, situated in the East Midlands region of England, with a population of around 794 people. Eastcote sits at an elevation of 128 metres, surrounded by other nearby villages such as Dalscote, Astcote, and Pattishall. Eastcote is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Eastcote is located approximately 59.7 miles northwest of London and 14.3 miles southeast of Milton Keynes.
AdBlue drains across Northamptonshire, Eastcote included
Dalscote, Astcote and Pattishall are among the towns near Eastcote that the same vans serve, along with much of Northamptonshire further out, over the NN postcode area. Close to a boundary, or somewhere tricky to explain? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
Eastcote is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Eastcote?
Not one flat price could be honest, since every job is different. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Saint Luke, Cold Higham Church.
With that reason, every enquiry from Eastcote begins by asking the same trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before a quote. Given them, the range shrinks to one firm number.
Our price is given on the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Eastcote: still next to the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran is all we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Northamptonshire, Eastcote included.