AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Giggshill? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and your ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it is sucked through the lines — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. In Giggshill, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Giggshill: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't bin it away.
- Ring right where you are. Say a KT7 0 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift your car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Thorkhill Gardens.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
Moving your vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Giggshill forecourt you are on, the Shell included. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and no part of it was intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor filled on a driveway in Seething Wells overnight and not started since is the simple one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once your engine turns, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
After it's pulled in, the harm takes 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, so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it till morning around Giggshill leaves things worse. In that tank only, waiting costs nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage is done while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Hinchley Wood or the middle of Giggshill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Wherever around Surrey your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Giggshill: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Long Ditton St Mary's CofE (Aided) Junior School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. A driver pours the container in outside their house, just off Westville Road, as the day ends. One more pattern: darkness, the car park by The Angel Inn, and a driver using that flap the first time.
It happens most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Giggshill or the rest of Surrey, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Giggshill: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Giggs Hill Green, perhaps, or part way across Giggshill. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M3, under 5 miles from Giggshill, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Giggshill to the car park by Malden and District Society of Model Engineers Ltd is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once your engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it is noticed quickly.
Giggshill: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car stays where it is, whether that is a street beside Dittons Library, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt around Giggshill, and our van travels to it. Three replies decide the work, so before anything else we ask what got in, about the amount, and if the engine has run.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, the system is primed with fresh diesel. At that point we fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside Thames Ditton or a driveway around Giggshill. Before leaving, our engineers check it's running correctly with new diesel in. As the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Giggshill
Giggshill is a locality in Surrey, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 13 metres, and is located near Long Ditton, Thames Ditton, and Weston Green. Giggshill has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most predominant. Giggshill is close to Westminster and London, making it a commuter-friendly area. Giggshill has a population of approximately 3428 residents.
AdBlue drains across Giggshill and Surrey
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Giggshill also cover the locations about it, Long Ditton, Thames Ditton and Weston Green among them, and most of Surrey beyond, across the KT postcode area. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
Wherever the vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Giggshill, a small village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Giggshill?
No single price could be fair, since each job differs. Three things change the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Thames Ditton Centre for the Community.
Which fluid went in, how much, plus if it ran: every Giggshill call opens with precisely that, ahead of any quote, never after. When those are known, a range becomes one fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the quote on the phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Giggshill and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Giggshill or wherever in Surrey, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.