Iwade: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens till the motor sucks it through. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly purged where the car stands around Iwade. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Iwade
Do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting ME9 8, or whichever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Don't:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance down Woodpecker Drive.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
The staff working at any Iwade forecourt — the Asda among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. On the drive, your car stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the very place the pickup draws from. A motor filled on a drive in Cold Harbour overnight and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine turns, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm come 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 gets to for as long as it remains there. By daybreak, a car sitting in Iwade with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's only in your tank, it doesn't. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the BP, and this problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside your tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the following tankful won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Iwade or out in Grove Park, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere across Kent your car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Iwade?
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally under one flap — may look the same. No one intends it; many designs allow it. Usually it is not the forecourt: someone picks up a container heading home and pours it in at home.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside Iwade School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken in. Someone tips the bottle in outside their house, right off School Lane, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the car in dim light, parked in the car park by The Woolpack.
It takes place most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere across Kent, Iwade as well, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Iwade?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It's been sucked through the filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may see the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Iwade Nature Park or halfway across Iwade. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M2, under 5 miles from Iwade, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Iwade to the car park by Iwade Village Hall is one thing; driving towards Southend-on-Sea, under 15 miles away, is something else, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once your engine has been run, and we do all of it where your car has stopped. If it's caught quickly, permanent damage is very unusual.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Iwade: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped in Iwade — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road beside Iwade Church — our van comes to your car. Three answers shape the job, so first our engineers ask what went in, roughly the amount, and if your motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one after that tank is emptied, right there. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't wash out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Then our technicians fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay at Kemsley or a driveway around Iwade. We make sure it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before leaving. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Iwade
Iwade is a village on the north Kent coast, situated near the mouth of the Swale estuary at an elevation of around 9 metres. Iwade lies within commuting distance of London, approximately 38 miles to the west, and is close to the nearby towns of Sittingbourne and Southend-on-Sea. Iwade has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the village. Iwade is bordered by other small communities, including Kemsley and Milton Regis.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Iwade included
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Iwade also cover the places around it, Kemsley, Howt Green and Milton Regis among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the ME postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you're by a county line, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
Iwade is a coastal village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Iwade?
Since each jobs differ, a single price would not be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine 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 van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Iwade Barn.
Before a figure, never after, every call from Iwade begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus if it ran. Once those are known, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. While the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still beside the vehicle around Iwade?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Kent, Iwade included.