Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Highbury
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system draws it in. In Highbury, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Highbury, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it away.
- Call right where you are. Say a N5 1 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: your motor remains off.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so keep it off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Aubert Road.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
The attendants on duty at any Highbury forecourt — the Shell included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and none of it was meant to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake takes its fuel from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Holloway yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once your engine runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. A car left standing around Highbury with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, and so the water part harms them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed into your diesel and left unused, it is harmless for now; using the motor does the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. It can't simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the following tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Highbury or out in Stoke Newington, costs more than almost any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere around Greater London the vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Highbury
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is not the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The top-up gets hurried outside St Joan of Arc RC Primary School, after the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken in. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, right off Aubert Park, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap refills the vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park by Highbury Barn Tavern.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — hire cars, new cars, fleet cars, and the other motor in a home with one of each fuels. Wherever you're around Highbury or the remainder of Greater London, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Highbury?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Highbury Fields Courts, say, or midway across Highbury. Once safe, stop then turn it off — without restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M1, under 10 miles from Highbury, at the next junction and park safely, not driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving for London, under 3 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Highbury to the car park by St Joan of Arc. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Noticed early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Highbury
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a street near Aubert Court Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in Highbury, and our van travels to it. Three replies decide the work, and so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, plus if your motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when your tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue will not flush away unaided. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Last, the system is primed with fresh diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at Drayton Park or on a drive in Highbury. Before we leave, we confirm it's running smoothly with new diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Highbury
Highbury is a suburban area in north London, situated approximately 3.5 miles from the city centre. Highbury sits at an elevation of around 46 metres, with nearby areas including Brownswood Park, Canonbury, and Finsbury Park. Highbury is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, accommodating a population of around 22,578 residents. Highbury is close to London, with the nearest city centre just 2.9 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Highbury and across Greater London
Throughout the N postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Highbury reach much of Greater London as well, Brownswood Park, Canonbury and Finsbury Park among them. Phone and check rather than guess when you're by a county line, or anywhere awkward to explain.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — we empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Highbury, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Highbury?
There is no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. What moves the price is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Site of Highbury Park House.
That is why each call from Highbury starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Those answers narrow a range down to a single number.
Our price is given on the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Highbury: still alongside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Highbury or anywhere around Greater London.