AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Goldhanger? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts until the engine pulls it round. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly flushed where your car stands around Goldhanger. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Goldhanger: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians will see.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting CM9 8, or simply the name of a street close by, and so phone from the spot.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition goes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't weaken it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up Blind Lane.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Goldhanger forecourt — the Tesco included — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Heybridge Basin last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a car parked around Goldhanger. Only in your tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol at the Bluebird Garage. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left in that tank, it does none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Totham Plains or the middle of Goldhanger.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever in Essex your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Goldhanger
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and after dark the two may appear identical. No one intends it. A bottle picked up while driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Heybridge Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Head Street. One more pattern: dim light, the car park by The Cricketers Inn, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a company motor, or the other motor of a family with both fuel types — the vehicles people know the least. An identical slip, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you are in Goldhanger or the rest of Essex.
Goldhanger: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Through the filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Maybe returning from Little Wood, or midway across Goldhanger, your engine might run rough, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or cut out. No starting it again to check: stop once it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Goldhanger lies under 25 miles from the M25; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so heading for Colchester, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than hopping across Goldhanger to the car park by Goldhanger Village Hall. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has stopped. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is spotted quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Goldhanger: what it takes
A road by St Peter's, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Goldhanger, our engineers come to it. The work rests on three answers, and our technicians ask for first — what was put in, the quantity, and if the motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is emptied, right there. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of your vehicle. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Witham or a driveway in Goldhanger, that is where our technicians start the engine and you set off. It is tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we go. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Goldhanger itself
Goldhanger is a small coastal village in Essex, situated near the mouth of the River Blackwater and close to the nearby islands of Osea and Northey. Goldhanger has a low elevation of around 10 metres above sea level and is surrounded by other villages such as Tolleshunt Major and Little Totham. Goldhanger is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is located approximately 41 miles from London. Goldhanger remains a quiet residential community with a population of around 752 people.
AdBlue drains across Goldhanger and Essex
AdBlue jobs in Goldhanger are passed to vans that serve the places near it — Tolleshunt Major, Little Totham as well as Osea Island — and most of Essex beyond, throughout CM postcodes. Close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
Goldhanger is a coastal village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Goldhanger: the cost of fixing it
Because the callouts differ, a flat price would not be honest. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind All Saints, Little Totham.
With that reason, every enquiry from Goldhanger begins with the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of any quote. Once they are known, a range turns into one fixed number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Still beside the vehicle around Goldhanger?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the best step available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Goldhanger or anywhere in Essex, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.