Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hamsey Green
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until the motor pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Hamsey Green, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Hamsey Green, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CR6 9, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself starts the pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is wasted.
- Even a short distance down Trenham Drive is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Emptying that tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
Moving the vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Hamsey Green forecourt you're on, the Warlingham Service Station included. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go that way.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits beneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Whyteleafe last night and never started stays the simple one, provided no one touches the key.
It does two kinds of harm 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 labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. A car left sitting in Hamsey Green with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that is the whole problem. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether the car sits in Greatpark or the centre of Hamsey Green, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever around Surrey your car has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Hamsey Green: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Hamsey Green Primary. Near The Elms, someone pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Otherwise, in dim light by The Harrow, the car gets refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it the most. Wherever you are in Hamsey Green or the rest of Surrey, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hamsey Green?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Through your filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Hamsey Green Recreation Ground, perhaps, or part way across Hamsey Green. No starting it again to test: stop when it is safe, then switch everything off. Every start pulls more of that through.
Hamsey Green sits under 5 miles from the M25; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Hamsey Green to the car park by Dynamo Boxing is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the motor has been run. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's spotted soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Hamsey Green
The car remains put, whether that's a road near All Saints', Warlingham, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt around Hamsey Green, and the van travels to it. What was put in, about the quantity, plus whether your motor has turned over: our engineers check first, since those decide the job.
Then your tank is drained where your car sits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains will not wash out on its own. A test of the car comes last, once fresh diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, if needed, swapped. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. At that point our engineers start the car and you drive off, whether from a parking space at Upper Warlingham or a driveway in Hamsey Green. We check it runs properly on fresh diesel before we leave. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Hamsey Green
Hamsey Green is a locality in Surrey, situated inland at an elevation of 174 metres, approximately 13 miles south of central London. Hamsey Green is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is located near the towns of Warlingham, Farleigh, and Chelsham. Hamsey Green has a population of around 1208 residents, making it a small but distinct community within the larger Surrey area.
AdBlue drains in Hamsey Green and across Surrey
AdBlue call-outs in Hamsey Green are passed to teams that serve the places near it — Warlingham, Farleigh plus Chelsham — and much of Surrey beyond, across CR postcodes. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Hamsey Green is a small village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Hamsey Green?
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open drive is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Warlingham Rugby Club.
What was put in, how much, and if the engine ran: every Hamsey Green call begins with exactly those, ahead of any quote, never afterwards. When they are answered, a range turns into one firm number.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Beside the vehicle around Hamsey Green, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Hamsey Green or anywhere within Surrey, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.