Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Great Canfield
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it's pulled through the lines — it won't burn, and it won't blend with diesel. In Great Canfield, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Great Canfield: the first few minutes
Do:
- Remove your keys, and that prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Ring right where you are. Say a CM6 1 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Shifting the car just a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way along Green Street is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle away from the island if you're at a forecourt in Great Canfield, whether it's the Tesco or elsewhere. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate reservoir it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — quite different from fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very place the pickup sucks from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Hellmans Cross last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of damage come 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 working on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A motor left standing in Great Canfield with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
A problem of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Gulf. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is in that tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following fill, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, so watering it won't help. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Philpot End or the heart of Great Canfield alike.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever across Essex the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Great Canfield?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Takeley Primary School the refill is rushed. Close to Canfield Road, a driver tips a container in on the drive after work. Or a driver new to that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Black Lion.
The least familiar cars get it the most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company cars, and the other car in a home with one of each fuels. Anywhere across Essex, Great Canfield included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
Great Canfield: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from High Rodingbury Wood, say, or midway across Great Canfield. No restarting to test: stop once safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M11, under 5 miles from Great Canfield, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving towards Chelmsford, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Great Canfield to the car park by St Mary, Great Canfield. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it's noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Great Canfield?
The car stays where it is, whether that is a street near All Saints, High Roding, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Great Canfield, and the van comes to it. What got in, about the quantity, and if the engine has turned over: our engineers ask first, since those shape the work.
Next, emptying that tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, if the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Last, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. You head off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway in Great Canfield or in a bay at Stansted Airport. It's checked on new diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians leave. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Great Canfield itself
Great Canfield is a small village in Essex, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 76 metres. Great Canfield lies near the villages of High Roding, Bacon End, and Baconend Green, and is approximately 9.8 miles from Chelmsford. Great Canfield has a population of around 581 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Great Canfield is also within commuting distance of London, being around 29.6 miles from the city.
Great Canfield and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the CM postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs around Great Canfield reach most of Essex too, High Roding, Bacon End and Baconend Green included. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to explain? Asking beats assuming, and so phone.
A mobile service fits Great Canfield, a village: there's no need to take the car to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Great Canfield?
Each job is different, and so not one fixed price is fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind The Peace Oak.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: every Great Canfield enquiry opens by asking precisely that, before any figure, not afterwards. Their answers narrow a range down to one number.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Still beside the vehicle around Great Canfield?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best thing open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Great Canfield or anywhere in Essex, after you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran.