AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Harbourland? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble starts once it is pulled through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. In Harbourland, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Harbourland
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, and so do not bin it out.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting ME14 3, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment your ignition goes on, so leave it off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Harbourland Close.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
The staff working at any Harbourland filling station — the Esso among them — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. On that drive, the car remains exactly as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a driveway in Sandling overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once the motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. A car left standing around Harbourland with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water part harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the main fault. Harm just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and left inside the tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Harbourland or out in Grove Green, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever around Kent your car has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Harbourland: how it ends up there
It is not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Mostly it's not the filling station: a driver buys a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. The refill gets rushed outside Sandling Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Boxley Road. Another pattern: dim light, the car park by The Bull, and someone opening that flap the first time.
The least known cars get it the most — hire cars, new cars, company ones, and the other car in a home with one of each fuels. Wherever in Kent, Harbourland as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Harbourland?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Heath Wood or halfway across Harbourland. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M20, under a mile from Harbourland, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further into your system. That is why crossing Harbourland to park beside Penenden Heath Village Hall and a drive of under 25 miles towards Southend-on-Sea are such different jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the motor has run there is more of it. If it is caught early, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Harbourland?
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a street beside St Paul's Church, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt around Harbourland, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if your engine has run, because those answers settle the work.
Then the tank is emptied where the vehicle sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, by Maidstone East or on a driveway around Harbourland. Our engineers check it runs properly on fresh diesel before we go. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. At the end, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Harbourland
Harbourland is a small hamlet in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 46 metres, and is located near Penenden Heath, Boxley, and Ringlestone. Harbourland has a population of around 1502 residents, who mostly live in semi-detached houses. Harbourland is positioned approximately 32.3 miles from London and 18.7 miles from the nearest city, Southend-on-Sea.
AdBlue drains across Harbourland and Kent
AdBlue jobs around Harbourland go to teams that cover the places near it — Penenden Heath, Boxley as well as Ringlestone — and much of Kent beyond, throughout ME postcodes. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
A van that comes to you suits Harbourland, a rural hamlet: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, because our engineers empty it there, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Harbourland: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. What shifts the price is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Marks & Spencer.
Ahead of any quote, not after, each enquiry from Harbourland opens with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and if the engine ran. With those replies, a range shrinks to one firm number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Harbourland and still alongside your car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best move you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Harbourland or anywhere within Kent.