Eythorne: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. In Eythorne, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Eythorne: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops someone switching the electrics on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so do not throw it away.
- Call just where you are. Say a CT15 4 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: your motor stays off.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Even a short way along Sandwich Road is too far to drive it.
- Emptying that tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
Moving your vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Eythorne forecourt you are on, the Esso included. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very spot the intake sucks from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Ashley last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it would be first through once your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What remains when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it's cleared out. A motor left sitting in Eythorne with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Tesco. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in the tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your car is in Barfrestone or the centre of Eythorne, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Kent your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Eythorne
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. No one means it. Usually it's not the forecourt: someone buys a container driving home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Eythorne Elvington Community Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up the car. Someone tips the container in at home, right off Coldred Road, as the day ends. Else, in dim light by The Crown Inn, your car is topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the spare car in a home with one of each fuel types — the cars drivers know least. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, wherever around Eythorne or the rest of Kent you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Eythorne?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and pipework.
Perhaps returning from Eythorne Playing Field, or midway across Eythorne, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or stall. No starting it again to check: stop when safe, then turn everything off. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M20, under 10 miles from Eythorne, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why crossing Eythorne to park beside Eythorne Baptist Church and a drive of under 15 miles towards Canterbury are very distinct jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. When it's spotted quickly, long-term damage is very unusual.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Eythorne: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped around Eythorne — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside a street just off the centre — the van comes to the vehicle. The work depends on three replies, and our engineers ask for before all else — what got in, the amount, and whether the motor has turned over.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because what remains will not wash out by itself. After that, the filter: flushed, or changed if it must be. Then clean diesel, then a check of your car. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your engine has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. After that we fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space at Shepherds Well or a drive around Eythorne. The check before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Eythorne and where it is
Eythorne is a small village in Kent, situated approximately 10 miles west of Canterbury and 63.9 miles southeast of London. Eythorne sits in a rural area at an elevation of around 82 metres, with nearby settlements including Upper Eythorne and Lower Eythorne. Eythorne has a population of around 843 people, predominantly living in semi-detached houses. Eythorne is close to the village of Elvington, with which it shares a rural setting.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Eythorne included
The vans that answer AdBlue calls in Eythorne also cover the spots round it, Upper Eythorne, Lower Eythorne and Elvington among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the CT postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
No moving is needed. In Eythorne, a rural village, a mobile service works: the car is drained on the spot, whether in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Eythorne?
Since each jobs vary, a single figure would not be fair. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open drive is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind St Peter & St Paul.
With that in mind, each call from Eythorne opens by asking the same trio — what went in, what quantity, if it ran — before any figure. With those replies, the range narrows to a single firm number.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Alongside your car around Eythorne, right now?
Then, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Eythorne or anywhere across Kent.