AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Gravesend? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens until the motor pulls it round. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Gravesend. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Gravesend: the first few minutes
Do:
- Remove the keys, which stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Which product, and about what amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can know.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting DA12 2, or just the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along New Road.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the verge.
On a forecourt in Gravesend, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A car filled on a drive in Perry Street overnight and not started since counts as the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your motor runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, working on any part it touches till it's removed completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning around Gravesend leaves it worse. In that tank only, waiting costs nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more significant than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Asda. Blended through your diesel and left still, it's harmless at that stage; running your engine is the damage.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car is in Northfleet or the centre of Gravesend, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere in Kent your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Gravesend: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two can look identical. No one intends it. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, just off King Street, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Robert Pocock.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the spare car in a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. Wherever you're around Gravesend or the remainder of Kent, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Gravesend?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Gravesend Library Reading Garden, say, or part way across Gravesend. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M2, under 5 miles from Gravesend, by the first junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Gravesend to the car park by Heritage Quarter is a very different job from a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. If it's caught quickly, long-term damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Gravesend?
A road by Gravesend Library and Information, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has stopped in Gravesend, we travel to it. What went in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run: we ask before all else, since those shape the job.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers arrive, if your motor has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. You drive off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Gravesend or in a space by the nearest station. It's checked on new diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers go. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Gravesend and where it is
Gravesend is a coastal town in Kent, situated on the River Thames. It serves as the main administrative hub for the surrounding area. The town is positioned near the boundary of Greater London, with the river separating it from the county of Essex. Gravesend is a significant urban centre in northwest Kent.
AdBlue drains across Gravesend and Kent
Milton, Windmill Hill and Rosherville are among the places near Gravesend that the same vans serve, along with most of Kent beyond, over the DA postcode area. Guessing won't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Gravesend is a coastal town, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Gravesend: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each jobs differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Image.
That is why each call from Gravesend starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Given them, a range narrows to one fixed number.
Before a van heads out, you hear the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Still beside your car in Gravesend?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Gravesend or anywhere in Kent.