Farthing Corner: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave your engine off and leave the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your car stands in Farthing Corner. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Farthing Corner
Do these:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not throw it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting ME8 8, or whichever street is closest, and our van reaches you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Do not do these:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short distance down Mierscourt Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Rolling the vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Farthing Corner forecourt you're on, the BP or any other. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the very place the pickup draws from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Wigmore overnight and not started since counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though when the motor runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it touches till it is cleared from the system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning around Farthing Corner leaves things worse. In that tank only, waiting does nothing. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that is the whole fault. No harm comes while it sits put, blended into the diesel — only when the engine works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the next tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Farthing Corner or out in Yelsted, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere across Kent the vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Farthing Corner?
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It mostly occurs at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic Primary School, after the dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken off. Near Matts Hill Road, someone pours a container in on the drive after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park outside Queens Head.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the spare car of a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles people know the least. Leave it off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere around Farthing Corner or the rest of Kent you happen to be.
Farthing Corner: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may show up, maybe part way across Farthing Corner or returning from Stoners Rough Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M2, under a mile from Farthing Corner, at the next junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so heading towards Southend-on-Sea, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Farthing Corner to the car park by Farthing Corner Families Association Community Centre. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it is noticed soon.
Farthing Corner: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest in Farthing Corner — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Parkwood Community Centre — the van travels to the car. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and if your engine has been run, since those replies settle this work.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned right through because residue won't flush out unaided. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, provided the motor hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the last step. At that point we start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Rainham (Kent) or a drive around Farthing Corner. Before we leave, our engineers check it is running correctly with new diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Farthing Corner, for a moment
Farthing Corner is a locality in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 115 metres, and forms part of the wider area between the Medway towns and the North Downs. Farthing Corner lies near several other small places, including Park Wood, Meresborough, and Kemsley Street, and is approximately 14.5 miles from Southend-on-Sea. Farthing Corner has a population of around 2090 people, predominantly living in terraced housing.
AdBlue drains in Farthing Corner and across Kent
Over the ME postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Farthing Corner reach much of Kent too, Park Wood, Meresborough and Kemsley Street among them. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
No moving is needed. In Farthing Corner, a small village, a van that comes to you fits: your vehicle is drained where it stands, be it on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Farthing Corner: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts differ, a single price wouldn't be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind St Paul's Church.
For that in mind, each call from Farthing Corner begins with the identical trio — which fluid was put in, how much, whether it ran — before any figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Farthing Corner and still beside your car?
Right now, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Farthing Corner or anywhere in Kent.