AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Horn Street? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then keep the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens till your engine pulls it through. In Horn Street, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Horn Street: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Call just where you are. Say a CT21 5 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance along Valestone Close.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
On a forecourt around Horn Street, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it precisely where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the same spot the intake sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Sandgate last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It does two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Horn Street with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's just inside the tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the BP, and the problem is thinned fuel. No damage is done as long as it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Since it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your car is in Newington or the centre of Horn Street, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it will not stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Wherever around Kent the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Horn Street?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Folkestone, St Martin's Church of England Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. A driver pours the bottle in at home, right off Craythorne Close, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Britannia.
Hired cars, brand-new vehicles, company vehicles, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Anywhere in Kent, Horn Street included, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it switched off.
Horn Street: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and lines.
Maybe coming back from The Stadium Recreation Ground, or part way across Horn Street, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, flash your dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M20, under a mile from Horn Street, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Horn Street to the car park by Small Arms Indoor Range is a very different job from a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the car has stopped, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's spotted early.
Horn Street: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Horn Street: a side street near St Martin's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work rests on three answers, which our engineers ask for first — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether your motor has run.
Then the tank is drained where the vehicle sits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers arrive, if your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The last step is to prime your system on clean diesel. Then we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay at Folkestone West or a driveway around Horn Street. The test before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Horn Street and where it is
Horn Street is a suburban area in Kent, situated near the coast and approximately 61.6 miles from London. Horn Street has a relatively low elevation of 27 metres and is located near the city of Canterbury, which is 13.9 miles away. Horn Street is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is close to nearby places such as Shorncliffe Camp and Cheriton.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Horn Street included
AdBlue jobs in Horn Street are passed to teams that serve the places near it — Shorncliffe Camp, Seabrook as well as Cheriton — and much of Kent further out, throughout CT postcodes. Guessing doesn't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
No moving is needed. In Horn Street, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Horn Street?
Every job is different, so not one single quote is fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Shorncliffe Redoubt.
For that in mind, every call from Horn Street begins by asking the same trio — what went in, how much, whether it ran — ahead of a quote. Given those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our quote on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Horn Street: still next to the car?
Then, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Horn Street or anywhere in Kent.