AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Enfield? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Enfield, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has been run. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Enfield: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, and that stops someone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Which product, and roughly how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can see.
- Give us a postcode starting EN2 6, or whichever street is closest, and the van finds you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Many diesels run their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it's wasted.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Little Park Gardens.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
At a forecourt around Enfield, whether it's the Texaco or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Forty Hill overnight and has not been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — though it will be first through once your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Once it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. 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 working on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, leaving it till morning around Enfield makes it worse. In your tank alone, time does nothing. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Fairways, and the problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's inside that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the car sits in Worlds End or the centre of Enfield, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across Greater London the vehicle sits.
Enfield: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside St Andrew's CofE Primary School. After work, a container goes in on a drive close to Palace Gardens. One more version: darkness, the car park by King's Head, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Enfield or the remainder of Greater London you are.
Enfield: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Your filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any may show up, perhaps midway across Enfield or coming back from Library Green. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off instead of testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
Enfield lies under 3 miles from the M25; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Mileage matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so heading for London, under 10 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Enfield to the car park by Enfield Library. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Enfield?
Anywhere it has come to rest in Enfield — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside Pearsons — the van comes to your car. What went in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run: we check first, since those shape the job.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned right through since residue won't wash out unaided. Next, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a test of the vehicle. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. You drive off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Enfield or in a space by Enfield Town. It's tested on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our engineers go. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Enfield
Enfield is a locality in Greater London, situated on the banks of the River Lea. Enfield sits at an elevation of 31 metres, approximately 10 miles north of central London. Enfield is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, with many residential buildings in the area. Enfield is close to nearby places such as Enfield Town, Bush Hill Park, and Grange Park.
AdBlue drains across Enfield and Greater London
Enfield Town, Bush Hill Park and Grange Park are among the towns around Enfield that the same vans reach, along with most of Greater London beyond, over the EN postcode area. Ring and check rather than guess when you're close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
No moving is needed. In Enfield, a small village, a van that comes to you works: the car is emptied on the spot, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
Enfield: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job is different, and so no fixed price would be fair. Three things shift the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Plaque: The World's First Cash Machine.
That's why every call from Enfield starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. With them, a range narrows to a single firm figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
In Enfield and still beside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Enfield or wherever within Greater London.