Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Fitzrovia
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble starts once it's sucked through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't blend with diesel. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully flushed where the car stands in Fitzrovia. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Fitzrovia, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Call right where you are. Say a W1T 4 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch down Fitzroy Street.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
Moving your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Fitzrovia forecourt you're on, the Esso included. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a separate tank it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Soho overnight and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the base of your tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if the motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. 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, so it keeps working on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. A vehicle left sitting in Fitzrovia with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Whether the vehicle is in Regents Park or the centre of Fitzrovia, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in Greater London the vehicle has stopped.
Fitzrovia: 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, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Rushing, outside All Souls CofE Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Close to Howland Street, a driver tips a container in at home in the evening. Otherwise, after dark outside Carpenters Arms, the vehicle gets topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it most — rentals, new ones, fleet cars, and the spare vehicle of a home with both fuel types. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere in Fitzrovia or the remainder of Greater London you are.
Fitzrovia: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It has been pulled through the filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from The Poets' Park or halfway across Fitzrovia. No restarting to test: stop once safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M1, under 10 miles from Fitzrovia, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
A quick hop across Fitzrovia to the car park by BT Tower is one thing; driving towards Westminster, under 3 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been started. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it's spotted soon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Fitzrovia: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest around Fitzrovia — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside Choreographic Form — the van travels to the vehicle. The job rests on three answers, and we get first — what got in, the amount, and if your motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when your tank is emptied, on the spot. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the vehicle follows last, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter is flushed or, where necessary, swapped. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming your system with new diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking bay by Tottenham Court Road or a drive around Fitzrovia, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. The check before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Fitzrovia and where it is
Fitzrovia is a suburban area in central London, situated near the city's main commercial and entertainment districts. Fitzrovia sits at an elevation of around 37 metres, close to the neighbouring areas of Somers Town, Bloomsbury, and Marylebone. Fitzrovia is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and a relatively high population density, with approximately 12,955 residents. Fitzrovia is also conveniently located near Westminster, being only 1.5 miles away from the city centre.
AdBlue drains across Fitzrovia and Greater London
Throughout the W1T postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Fitzrovia reach most of Greater London too, Somers Town, Bloomsbury and Marylebone included. Close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so ring.
No moving is needed. In Fitzrovia, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: your car is emptied where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Fitzrovia: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, so not one single price would be fair. What changes the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
Before a figure, not after, every enquiry from Fitzrovia opens with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and if it ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Our price is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Still beside the vehicle in Fitzrovia?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best move you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether the engine ran are everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Greater London, Fitzrovia included.