AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hempstead? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until your engine sucks it through. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully rinsed where the car stands in Hempstead. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hempstead
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and we will see.
- Give us a postcode starting ME7 3, or whatever street lies closest, and our van finds you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up Cedar Grove.
- Emptying that tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move the car off the island if you're at a forecourt in Hempstead, whether it's the Sainsbury's or somewhere else. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Stored in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Bredhurst yesterday and not started stays the simple one, as long as nobody touches your key.
After it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. What remains when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in Hempstead with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is only inside the tank, it doesn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A problem of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. No damage is done as long as it stays put, blended into your diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the following tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Hempstead or out in Kemsley Street, costs more than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Kent the car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hempstead: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under one flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs invite it. A container picked up while driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Rushing, outside Hempstead Junior School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills the car. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive near Green Bank Close. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Hungry Fox, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, new vehicles, company motors, or the spare car in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it the most. Wherever around Kent, Hempstead included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it switched off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hempstead?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through the fuel filter, along the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
Perhaps returning from Wigmore Park, or part way across Hempstead, your motor might go rough, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or stall. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Hempstead lies under a mile from the M2; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system, so driving for Southend-on-Sea, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Hempstead to the car park by Hempstead Public Library. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to rinse out once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where your car has stopped. Permanent damage is very rare if it's spotted early.
Hempstead: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest around Hempstead — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside All Saints Church — our van comes to the car. What was put in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run: our technicians check first, because those shape the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is drained, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. Testing the car comes last, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, if necessary, swapped. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the last step. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, at Rainham (Kent) or on a driveway in Hempstead. Before leaving, we make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Hempstead
Hempstead is a suburban area in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 94 metres, and is located approximately 32 miles from London. Hempstead is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, which reflects the area's residential nature. Hempstead sits near several other local places, including Wigmore, Capstone, and Park Wood, and is close to the city of Southend-on-Sea, which is about 14 miles away. Hempstead has a population of around 4734 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains in Hempstead and across Kent
AdBlue call-outs in Hempstead go to teams that cover the places near it — Wigmore, Capstone plus Park Wood — and most of Kent further out, throughout ME postcodes. Guessing won't help by a county line or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Anywhere the car sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Hempstead, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hempstead: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts differ, a single price wouldn't be fair. What changes the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre.
Which fluid went in, how much, and whether it ran: every Hempstead enquiry opens by asking precisely those, ahead of a figure, not afterwards. Their answers narrow a range down to a single number.
The quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, dig out your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
In Hempstead and still alongside the car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Hempstead or wherever within Kent.