AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hextable? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave the motor off and keep your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes when your pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Hextable, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Hextable: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting BR8 7, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Never:
- Moving your vehicle just a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's pointless.
- Even a short distance up Top Dartford Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Hextable, whether it is the BP or elsewhere. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Clement Street overnight and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once the motor turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on any part it touches till it's cleared from your system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. A vehicle left sitting around Hextable with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Harvest Energy. Blended into the diesel and sitting still, it's no threat at that stage; running your engine does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car is in Swanley or the centre of Hextable, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere around Kent your car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Hextable
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and after dark the two can appear the same. No one means it. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver buys a bottle heading home and tips it in outside the house.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Hextable Primary School. Near Home Hill, a driver pours a container in on that drive in the evening. Or someone new to that flap refills your car in dim light, parked in the car park by The Ship.
Hired cars, new motors, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars get it the most. Anywhere in Kent, Hextable as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hextable, and the motor started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Hextable Memorial Garden or halfway across Hextable. Once you safely can, stop then turn it off — without turning it on again to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M25, under 3 miles from Hextable, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Hopping across Hextable to the car park by St Peter is one thing; heading for London, under 15 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. When it is caught soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Hextable
A street beside Hextable Methodist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the car has come to rest around Hextable, our technicians come to it. The work rests on three answers, and our technicians ask for first — what was put in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away unaided, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. Next, the filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. After that clean diesel, then a test of your vehicle. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your engine has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Swanley or a driveway in Hextable, that is where our technicians fire it up and you head off. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we head off. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Hextable, briefly
Hextable is a village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 44 metres, and is located approximately 14.9 miles from London. Hextable has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and the village is near other small communities such as Stonehill Green and Swanley Village. Hextable is part of the wider commuter belt around London, with the city's influence extending to the village.
AdBlue drains across Hextable and Kent
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Hextable also cover the places around it, Stonehill Green, White Oak and Swanley Village among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the BR postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking beats assuming, so ring.
Hextable is a rural village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Hextable
There's no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Christ Apostolic Church.
That's why each call from Hextable starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Hextable: still next to the car?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Hextable or wherever within Kent, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.