AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Foots Cray? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition too. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens until your engine sucks it round. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Foots Cray. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Foots Cray: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting DA14 5, or whatever street lies closest, and the van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Never:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way up Rectory Lane is too far to drive the vehicle.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your vehicle away from the island if you're on a forecourt in Foots Cray, whether it is the BP or somewhere else. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a dedicated tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine lets out. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same place the pickup draws from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits underneath your diesel, which is how a car topped up in North Cray yesterday and not started remains the simple case, as long as no one touches your key.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. It eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches until it is cleared from the system. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Foots Cray with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; if it is just inside that tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the main problem. Mixed through the diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; using the engine is the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Whether the car is in St Pauls Cray or the heart of Foots Cray, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Greater London the vehicle is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Foots Cray
It's not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical story.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Hope Community School the refill is hurried. A driver tips the bottle in at home, right off Baugh Road, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Seven Stars, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, an identical first step — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be in Foots Cray or the remainder of Greater London.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Foots Cray, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may show up, maybe part way across Foots Cray or coming back from Foots Cray Recreation Ground. No restarting to check: stop when it is safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M20, under 5 miles from Foots Cray, at the first junction and park safely, not driving on.
A quick hop across Foots Cray to the car park by The Ken Boyce Centre is one matter; heading towards London, under 15 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been running. Noticed early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Foots Cray: what it takes
A street beside All Saints Church, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the vehicle has stopped in Foots Cray, our engineers travel to it. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and if your motor has turned over: our technicians ask before all else, because those decide the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is drained, right there. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. After that clean diesel, then a check of the car. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to prime the system on clean diesel. At that point we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space by Albany Park or a driveway around Foots Cray. The test before our technicians go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Foots Cray and where it is
Foots Cray is a suburban area in southeast London, situated on the River Cray at an elevation of around 28 metres. Foots Cray lies approximately 12 miles from central London and is bordered by nearby places such as Ruxley and Albany Park. Foots Cray has a population of around 4069 people, predominantly residing in flats. Foots Cray is characterized by its riverside setting and relatively low elevation,
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Foots Cray included
Ruxley, Albany Park and Upper Ruxley are among the towns around Foots Cray that the same vans serve, together with most of Greater London beyond, over the DA postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Wherever the vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Foots Cray, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Foots Cray
Every job is different, and so not one single quote would be fair. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Foots Cray Baptist Church.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, and whether it ran: every Foots Cray enquiry begins with exactly those, ahead of any figure, not after. When those are known, a range becomes a single fixed figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the vehicle in Foots Cray?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best move available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Foots Cray or anywhere within Greater London.