Great Horkesley: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and your ignition as well. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts once your pump starts pulling it. In Great Horkesley, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Great Horkesley
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CO6 4, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Nayland Road.
- Emptying the tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll your car away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Great Horkesley, whether it is the Gulf or elsewhere. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the intake takes its fuel from. A motor filled on a drive in West Bergholt yesterday evening and left unstarted is the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but when your engine turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What is left once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it's cleared out. A motor left standing around Great Horkesley with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a problem of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot simply be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the next tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Great Horkesley or out in Braiswick, costs more than almost any other error.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Essex the vehicle is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Great Horkesley
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Rushing, outside The Bishop William Ward Church of England Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive close to The Causeway. Else, in dim light by The Yew Tree, the car is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least known cars get it most — rentals, brand-new cars, company ones, and the other motor of a family with one of each fuel types. An identical slip, same first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you are in Great Horkesley or the remainder of Essex.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Great Horkesley, and the motor started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been drawn through your filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might show up, maybe part way across Great Horkesley or coming back from Aldercar Wood. When you safely can, stop and turn it off — with no restarting to test. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M11, under 50 miles from Great Horkesley, at the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Hopping across Great Horkesley to the car park by St John, Great Horkesley is one matter; heading towards Colchester, under 3 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the engine has been started. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Great Horkesley: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that's a street near Great Horkesley Village Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Great Horkesley, and our van comes to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has been run, because those replies settle this work.
Then the tank is drained where your car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the car follows last, after fresh diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Last, your system is primed with clean diesel. After that our engineers start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking bay at Colchester or a drive around Great Horkesley. Our engineers make sure it runs correctly on clean diesel before leaving. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Great Horkesley, briefly
Great Horkesley is a village in Essex, situated on the banks of the River Colne, with Horkesley Heath and Tye Green nearby. Great Horkesley has a population of around 1054 people, living in predominantly detached houses, and is located close to the city of Colchester. Great Horkesley sits at an elevation of 49 metres, in a riverside setting that offers scenic views of the surrounding countryside. Great Horkesley is also near to Mile End, and is around 52 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Great Horkesley and Essex
AdBlue call-outs in Great Horkesley go to vans that serve the towns around it — Horkesley Heath, Tye Green as well as Mile End — and most of Essex beyond, throughout CO postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service fits Great Horkesley, a village: you have no need to bring the car to us, because our engineers empty it there, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Great Horkesley
Each job is different, and so no fixed price is honest. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open drive is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Great Horkesley Village Sign.
Before a figure, not afterwards, every call from Great Horkesley begins with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus if it ran. Their replies narrow a range down to one number.
Our price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still next to the car in Great Horkesley?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Great Horkesley or wherever within Essex.