Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Bookham
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and your ignition as well. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The harm begins once it is sucked through the pump — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. In Great Bookham, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Great Bookham: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Take your keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting KT23 4, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Moving your vehicle even a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along High Street.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Rolling your vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Great Bookham forecourt you are on, the Esso or any other. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump can't take urea.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Effingham last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It does two kinds of damage 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 remains there. By daybreak, a car parked around Great Bookham with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is only inside that tank, it doesn't. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the BP, and this problem is diluted fuel. Blended into your diesel and sitting still, it is no threat at that stage; using your motor does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. 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 matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Hawks Hill or the middle of Great Bookham.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Surrey your car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Great Bookham: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up while heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical story.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Great Bookham School. Someone pours the container in outside their house, right off Church Road, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up the car in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Royal Oak.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — rentals, brand-new ones, company ones, and the other car of a home with both fuel types. Anywhere around Surrey, Great Bookham included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Great Bookham?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Via the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any may appear, maybe part way across Great Bookham or returning from Chrystie Recreation Ground. 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.
If you were on the M25, under 3 miles from Great Bookham, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Great Bookham to the car park by St Nicolas. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been running. Caught quickly, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Great Bookham?
The car stays where it is, whether that is a road near Bookham Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Great Bookham, and the van comes to it. The job depends on three answers, which our engineers get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and whether your motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is drained, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, if the motor hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes last. You set off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway in Great Bookham or in a space at Bookham. It's tested on new diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our technicians head off. As the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Great Bookham, for a moment
Great Bookham is a locality in Surrey, situated inland at an elevation of 68 metres, approximately 19 miles from London. Great Bookham has a population of around 2153 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Great Bookham is located near other settlements such as Little Bookham and Fetcham, and is also within reach of the coast, although the Isle of Wight is a significant distance away. Great Bookham sits within the South East region of England, with Westminster being the nearest major city.
Great Bookham and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Great Bookham also cover the spots about it, Little Bookham, Fetcham and Isle of Wight among them, and most of Surrey beyond, across the KT postcode area. Assuming doesn't help by a border or anywhere tricky to describe; phone and ask.
Great Bookham is a small village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Great Bookham?
Every job differs, and so no single quote is honest. Three things shift the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind Bookham Youth and Community Centre.
For that in mind, every call from Great Bookham opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before any figure. Their replies shrink a range down to one figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Check your policy while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the car in Great Bookham?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful move you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Great Bookham or anywhere in Surrey.