Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Green Street Green
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The harm starts once it is sucked through your lines — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. In Green Street Green, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Green Street Green, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the amount, so do not bin it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BR6 6, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of 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 Lezayre Road is too far to drive it.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt around Green Street Green, whether it's the Shell or somewhere else. On that drive, the vehicle remains just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It drops, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Crofton last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; and, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Green Street Green with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is only inside the tank, nothing changes. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Texaco, and this issue is diluted fuel. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't 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 the car is in Hazelwood or the middle of Green Street Green.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Greater London the vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Green Street Green
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Green Street Green Primary School. Close to Manitoba Gardens, a driver pours a bottle in at home in the evening. Else, after dark outside The Queens Head, the vehicle is refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company car, or the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers know the least. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Green Street Green or the rest of Greater London you happen to be.
Green Street Green: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Through the fuel filter, along the lines, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
Maybe returning from Ramus Wood, or midway across Green Street Green, the motor may go rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M25, under 3 miles from Green Street Green, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system. That is why crossing Green Street Green to park beside St Mary's Church and a drive of under 15 miles for London are very different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's caught early.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Green Street Green: what it takes
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a road near Sir John Lubbock, First Lord Avebury, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Green Street Green, and our van comes to it. The job rests on three replies, and our engineers get before all else — what was put in, the amount, and whether your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is emptied, right there. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. Testing your vehicle follows at the end, after clean diesel is added and the filter gets flushed or, where needed, swapped. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay outside Chelsfield or a driveway around Green Street Green, that is where we start the car and you drive off. Our engineers confirm it runs correctly on new diesel before we leave. We do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Green Street Green and where it is
Green Street Green is a suburban area in Greater London, situated approximately 14 miles from central London. Green Street Green has a population of around 4171 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Green Street Green is located near several other suburban areas, including Chelsfield, Farnborough, and Pratts Bottom, and sits at an elevation of 78 metres. Green Street Green is a residential community on the outskirts of London, with the nearest city being London itself, about 13.6 miles away.
Green Street Green and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the BR postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around Green Street Green serve most of Greater London too, Chelsfield, Farnborough and Pratts Bottom among them. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're by a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
Green Street Green is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Green Street Green: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, and so not one single price is fair. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Bromley Millennium Rock.
What went in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Green Street Green call begins with exactly those, ahead of any figure, not afterwards. Their answers narrow a range right down to a single figure.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Green Street Green: still beside your car?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the best move there is. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Green Street Green or anywhere within Greater London.