Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Godalming
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only starts once your pump begins pulling it. In Godalming, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Godalming
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting GU7 1, or simply the name of a street nearby, so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the car: the motor stays off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Moss Lane.
- By the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
The staff working at any Godalming filling station — the JET among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was meant to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same place the intake draws from. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in Frith Hill overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid waits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through once your motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. A motor left standing in Godalming with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing through them, and so the water content harms them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Sainsbury's, and this problem is thinned fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside your tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the next fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Godalming or out in Ockford Ridge, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just in your tank, the easiest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere the car has come to rest across Surrey.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Godalming?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. It usually occurs at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Moss Lane School. Someone tips the container in outside their house, right off High Street, as the day ends. Else, after dark by The Jack Phillips, the car gets refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever around Surrey, Godalming included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Godalming, and the motor started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Phillips Memorial Park, or midway across Godalming, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M3, under 15 miles from Godalming, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Hopping across Godalming to the car park by Godalming Museum is one thing; driving for Chichester, under 50 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the flushing where your car has ended up, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Long-term damage is very unusual when it's caught early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Godalming: what it takes
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Godalming: a side street near Lingwood Samuel, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What got in, about how much, plus if your motor has turned over: our technicians ask first, because those shape the job.
Then that tank is cleared where the vehicle waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, your system is primed with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside the nearest station or a drive in Godalming, that is where our engineers fire it up and you drive off. It is tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. Since the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Godalming itself
Godalming is a town situated on the banks of the River Wey in Surrey, with a mix of old and new buildings reflecting its long history. Godalming sits at an elevation of around 48 metres, in a valley setting that has made it an attractive place to live. Godalming has a range of nearby neighbourhoods, including Crownpits, Westbrook, and Holloway Hill, and is located approximately 30 miles south-west of London. Godalming is predominantly composed of detached housing, which is typical of many towns in the South East of England.
AdBlue drains in Godalming and across Surrey
AdBlue jobs around Godalming go to teams that serve the towns around it — Crownpits, Westbrook as well as Holloway Hill — and most of Surrey further out, across GU postcodes. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; ring and ask.
A mobile service suits Godalming, a riverside town: there's no need to bring your car to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Godalming
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs are not the same. The price moves 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 rests on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind McAllister Thomas.
That's why each call from Godalming starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Godalming and still alongside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Surrey, Godalming too.