AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Griffitts Yard? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing happens till the motor pulls it round. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully cleaned where your car stands in Griffitts Yard. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Griffitts Yard: the first few minutes
Do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting HP5 2, or just the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance along Bellingdon Road.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Get the attendants to help you move the vehicle away from the island if you are on a forecourt in Griffitts Yard, whether it's the Shell or somewhere else. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. From a separate tank it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was meant to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Chesham yesterday evening and left unstarted is the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of damage come from there. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning around Griffitts Yard makes things worse. Inside that tank only, time does nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the BP, and the issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's inside that tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Whether your car is in Hilltop or the heart of Griffitts Yard, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever across Buckinghamshire the car has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Griffitts Yard?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Elmtree Infant and Nursery School the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Higham Road. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside The Griffin, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new motors, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it the most. Wherever you're in Griffitts Yard or the remainder of Buckinghamshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Griffitts Yard: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Perhaps returning from Co-op Field, or midway across Griffitts Yard, the motor may go lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M25, under 10 miles from Griffitts Yard, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why crossing Griffitts Yard to park near Chesham Mosque and a drive of under 15 miles towards St Albans are such different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the engine has been started, and we do all of it where your car has stopped. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it is noticed quickly.
Griffitts Yard: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Griffitts Yard: a side street near Wallington House Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid went in, about how much, plus if your motor has turned over: our engineers check first, because those shape the job.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Next, the filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of the vehicle. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by Amersham or on a driveway in Griffitts Yard. Our technicians make sure it runs correctly on new diesel before leaving. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Griffitts Yard itself
Griffitts Yard is a locality in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 108 metres, approximately 25 miles from London. Griffitts Yard lies near several other local places, including Newtown, Pond Park, and The Broadway. Griffitts Yard is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects the area's development as a residential locality. Griffitts Yard is close to the city of St Albans, which is about 12 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Griffitts Yard and across Buckinghamshire
Newtown, Pond Park and The Broadway are among the towns near Griffitts Yard that the same teams reach, together with much of Buckinghamshire beyond, over the HP postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
No towing is needed. In Griffitts Yard, a small village, a van that comes to you fits: your car is emptied where it stands, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Griffitts Yard?
Since each jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. Three things change the price: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Chiltern Citizens Advice.
What got in, how much, and if it ran: every Griffitts Yard call begins by asking exactly those, before any figure, never after. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
The quote is given on the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your policy: many include misfuelling.
In Griffitts Yard and still alongside the car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if it ran is everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Buckinghamshire, Griffitts Yard included.