Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Eastwell Park
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your engine off and keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage just starts once your pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Eastwell Park, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Eastwell Park, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Remove your keys, which prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TN25 4, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance along Faversham Road.
- By the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Eastwell Park, whether it's the Willesborough Kennington Garages or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Boughton Aluph yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel components, attacking any part it reaches until it is cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow channels. A car left sitting in Eastwell Park with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Wye Motors and you have a fault of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's inside the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the following fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Eastwell Park or out in Kennington Lees, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits only inside that tank, the easiest section of the whole system to empty, wherever the car has come to rest around Kent.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Eastwell Park?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Goat Lees Primary School. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to Wye Road. Or someone new to that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park outside The Flying Horse.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, same first response — leave it off — anywhere you are in Eastwell Park or the remainder of Kent.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Eastwell Park?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Eastwell Manor, perhaps, or midway across Eastwell Park. No restarting to check: stop once it is safe, then switch it off. Every start pulls more of that through.
Eastwell Park lies under 3 miles from the M20; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across Eastwell Park to park near Well and a drive of under 15 miles for Canterbury are such separate jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been running. If it is spotted soon, long-term damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Eastwell Park?
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Eastwell Park: a side street close to Church of St. Mary's Eastwell, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, which our technicians get before all else — which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether the motor has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where the car sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a check of your car. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. Whether it is a parking bay by Wye or a drive around Eastwell Park, that is where we start the engine and you set off. Our technicians make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel before we leave. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Eastwell Park itself
Eastwell Park is a locality in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 91 metres, approximately 10.5 miles from Canterbury and 48.8 miles from London. Eastwell Park is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, set amidst the rolling countryside of the South East. Eastwell Park remains a small and quiet community, with nearby places including Boughton Lees, Goat Lees, and Kempes Corner.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Eastwell Park included
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Eastwell Park also cover the spots round it, Boughton Lees, Goat Lees and Kempes Corner among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the TN postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No towing is needed. In Eastwell Park, a small village, a van that comes to you fits: the car is emptied on the spot, be it on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Eastwell Park: the cost of fixing it
No single figure would be fair, because each job is different. Three things shift the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind The Iron Room.
With that in mind, each call from Eastwell Park begins by asking the same trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of a quote. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still next to the vehicle in Eastwell Park?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if it ran is everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Kent, Eastwell Park included.