Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hayes
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once your pump starts pulling it. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully cleaned where your car sits in Hayes. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hayes: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take the keys out.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting BR2 7, or whatever street is nearest, and our van finds you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down Chatham Avenue.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Moving the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Hayes forecourt you're on, the Shell or any other. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what your engine emits. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was meant to go that way.
It doesn't blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Keston overnight and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it would be first through once your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it remains in there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning around Hayes leaves things worse. Inside the tank only, waiting costs nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Harvest Energy and you have a problem of thin fuel. Mixed through your diesel and left unused, it is no threat at that stage; using your engine does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in West Wickham or the middle of Hayes.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Greater London your car has come to rest, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Hayes
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to your diesel filler, at times 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 drive, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Hayes Primary School the top-up is rushed. Close to Hayes Street, someone tips a bottle in at home in the evening. Another pattern: dim light, the car park outside The George, and a driver using that flap the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a new car, a fleet car, or the spare car of a home with one of each fuels — the cars drivers know least. Same slip, an identical first step — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Hayes or the remainder of Greater London.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hayes?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. The filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may appear, maybe midway across Hayes or returning from Millenium Garden. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of restarting it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M25, under 10 miles from Hayes, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Hayes to the car park by Hayes Village 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 every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the engine has been started. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is caught early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Hayes
The car stays put, whether that is a road beside St Mary the Virgin, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Hayes, and the van comes to it. Three replies shape the work, and so first our engineers ask which fluid was put in, roughly what quantity, plus if your engine has run.
Then the tank is cleared where your car sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. You set off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Hayes or in a bay by Hayes (Kent). Our technicians make sure it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Hayes
Hayes is a suburban area in Greater London, situated near the River Ravensbourne and characterised by semi-detached housing. Hayes sits at an elevation of around 63 metres, with Bromley Common and Coney Hall nearby. Hayes is located approximately 10.8 miles from central London, with Westminster about 10.4 miles away. Hayes has a population of around 4858 residents.
AdBlue drains around Hayes and across Greater London
Bromley Common, Coney Hall and Keston Mark are among the towns near Hayes that the same teams serve, along with much of Greater London beyond, throughout the BR postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you're by a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
A mobile service suits Hayes, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Hayes?
No flat figure could be fair, because every job differs. Three things shift the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind The Rectory.
For that reason, each enquiry from Hayes opens with the same trio — what went in, how much, if it ran — before a figure. Their replies shrink the range right down to one figure.
The quote is given during the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Beside the vehicle around Hayes, right now?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran are all we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Greater London, Hayes included.