AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Goodmayes? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the lines — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. Caught before the motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Goodmayes. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Goodmayes
Things to do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so don't throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting IG3 9, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Even a short way down Goodmayes Lane is too far to drive the car.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
On a forecourt in Goodmayes, whether it is the JET or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the car away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it is fed directly to your exhaust, treating what the motor emits. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Loxford last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does 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, so it keeps working on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A motor left sitting in Goodmayes with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside the tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether your car sits in Ilford or the heart of Goodmayes, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere across Greater London the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Goodmayes?
It is not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. A bottle bought while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Mayespark Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. Someone tips the container in at home, right off Breamore Road, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park outside the pub in the village.
Rented vehicles, new cars, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least familiar cars get it most. Same slip, an identical first step — keep it off — anywhere you are in Goodmayes or the rest of Greater London.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Goodmayes?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through the fuel filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Goodmayes Park, say, or midway across Goodmayes. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M11, under 5 miles from Goodmayes, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
A quick hop across Goodmayes to the car park by All Saints is one matter; heading for London, under 10 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the car has ended up. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Goodmayes: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The vehicle remains put, whether that's a road beside Goodmayes Library, a driveway, a layby or a filling station in Goodmayes, and our van comes to it. What went in, roughly the quantity, plus if your motor has been run: our technicians ask first, because those decide the work.
Next, emptying that tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway around Goodmayes, that is where our technicians fire it up and you head off. Before leaving, our technicians check it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Goodmayes itself
Goodmayes is a suburban area in east London, situated near the River Roding at an elevation of around 14 metres. Goodmayes is located approximately 10.8 miles from central London and is close to nearby places such as Seven Kings, Newbury Park, and Becontree. Goodmayes has a population of around 15,205 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Goodmayes is a residential community with a mix of local amenities and transport links to London.
AdBlue drains across Goodmayes and Greater London
Seven Kings, Newbury Park and Becontree are among the places around Goodmayes that the same vans serve, together with most of Greater London further out, over the IG postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats guessing, so ring.
A mobile service suits Goodmayes, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring the car to us, because our technicians empty it there, in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Goodmayes?
Each job differs, and so no fixed price is honest. Three things move the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind St Cedd's.
For that reason, each call from Goodmayes opens by asking the same trio — what was put in, how much, if it ran — ahead of a quote. Their replies narrow a range down to a single figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your policy while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Goodmayes: still alongside the vehicle?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Goodmayes or anywhere in Greater London.