AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Highlands Village? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. In Highlands Village, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Highlands Village: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which product, and about what amount? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Tell us a postcode starting N21 1, or whichever street is nearest, and our van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Don't:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to shift your car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it's pointless.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short distance up Highlands Avenue.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Moving the vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Highlands Village forecourt you're on, the Esso or any other. At home, the car stays exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the very place the intake sucks from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is why a car filled in Winchmore Hill last night and not started remains the simple case, provided no one touches your key.
Once it's pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. It attacks certain metals used in fuel systems, working on any part it touches until it is removed from the system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. A vehicle left standing around Highlands Village with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the whole issue. No harm comes while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when your engine works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the next tankful will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Highlands Village or out in Enfield, costs more than nearly any other error.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere around Greater London the car has come to rest, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Highlands Village: how it ends up there
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. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Eversley Primary School. A driver pours the container in outside their house, right off Newsholme Drive, as the day ends. Else, after dark outside Willow, the vehicle is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
Hired motors, brand-new motors, fleet vehicles, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Keep it off: that's the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere around Highlands Village or the remainder of Greater London you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Highlands Village?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, maybe midway across Highlands Village or coming back from Blake Court Garden. When safe, pull over and switch everything off — without restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M25, under 5 miles from Highlands Village, by the first junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across Highlands Village to park beside Highlands Village Hall and a drive of under 10 miles for London are such different jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the flushing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it is spotted quickly.
Highlands Village: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that's a street beside St Peter's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Highlands Village, and our van travels to it. Before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the engine has been run, since those replies decide the work.
Then your tank is emptied where your car sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned right through because what remains will not wash out unaided. Testing the vehicle comes at the end, once clean diesel goes in and the filter is flushed or, if necessary, swapped. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. At that point our technicians fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay by Grange Park or a drive in Highlands Village. The check before we head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Highlands Village itself
Highlands Village is a suburban area in Greater London, situated lakeside with an elevation of 64 metres. Highlands Village lies approximately 9.5 miles from central London, near neighbouring areas such as Grange Park and Oakwood. Highlands Village has a population of around 6366 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Highlands Village is also close to Worlds End, another local suburban area.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Highlands Village included
The vans that answer AdBlue calls around Highlands Village also cover the locations round it, Grange Park, Oakwood and Worlds End among them, and most of Greater London beyond, across the N postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a border or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
A mobile service fits Highlands Village, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, since we drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Highlands Village?
No single price could be fair, because every job differs. The price changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind St. Thomas's, Oakwood.
For that in mind, each call from Highlands Village opens by asking the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before any quote. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our price by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Highlands Village and still beside the vehicle?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Highlands Village or anywhere within Greater London.