Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hampton
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once the pump starts pulling it. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle sits in Hampton. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hampton: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting TW12 3, or whatever street is closest, and our van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance up Broad Lane.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
On a forecourt around Hampton, whether it's the NPL Hydrogen Station or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Hurst Park last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — though it will be first through if your motor starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. A vehicle left standing around Hampton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Sainsbury's's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the main problem. Mixed through your diesel and left unused, it's harmless at that stage; using your motor does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in West Molesey or the centre of Hampton, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Greater London the vehicle is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Hampton
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. It mostly takes place outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Carlisle Infant School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Gloucester Road. Else, in dim light outside The Star, your vehicle is refilled by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars see it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company cars, and the spare motor in a home with one of each fuels. Wherever around Greater London, Hampton included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hampton, and the motor started?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might appear, perhaps part way across Hampton or coming back from Pantile Bridge Open Space. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
On the M3, under 3 miles from Hampton, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Hampton to the car park by George Stanley Hall is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. If it is caught soon, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Hampton: what it takes
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that is a road beside United Reformed Church, a drive, a layby or a forecourt in Hampton, and our van comes to it. What went in, roughly the quantity, and whether the motor has been run: our technicians ask before all else, because those decide the work.
Next, emptying the tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush counts far more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't clear out on its own. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians turn up, if your motor has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, your system is bled with new diesel. Then our technicians start the car and you drive off, whether from a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway around Hampton. Before we go, our technicians check it's running correctly with clean diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Hampton and where it is
Hampton is a locality in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, situated on the north bank of the River Thames at an elevation of around 18 metres. Hampton sits within a short distance of nearby places such as Hampton Hill, Fulwell, and Teddington, and is located approximately 11.7 miles from central London. Hampton has a population of around 2675 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Hampton and Greater London
Hampton Hill, Fulwell and Teddington are among the places near Hampton that the same teams serve, together with much of Greater London beyond, over the TW postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess when you're by a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
Hampton is a small village, and an on-site 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 is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Hampton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so not one fixed quote is fair. Three things change the cost: 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 our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight spot behind The Greenwood Centre.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Hampton begins with the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before any figure. Once they are answered, a range becomes a single fixed figure.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Hampton and still alongside the car?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful move available. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Hampton or wherever in Greater London, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.