AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kempes Corner? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and your ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Kempes Corner. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kempes Corner: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops anyone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TN25 4, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so leave it off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not weaken it.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up Canterbury Road.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
Rolling the vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Kempes Corner forecourt you are on, the Wye Motors or any other. At home, the vehicle stays exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Eastwell Park last night and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through once your motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it's pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. It attacks certain metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches till it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. A vehicle left sitting in Kempes Corner with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water part damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Willesborough Kennington Garages. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and left in your tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Kennington or the heart of Kempes Corner equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, wherever the vehicle has stopped across Kent.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Kempes Corner
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver buys a container driving home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Lady Joanna Thornhill Endowed Primary School. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Harville Road. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside The Flying Horse, and someone opening that flap the first time.
The least known cars get it most — hire cars, new cars, fleet ones, and the other car of a home with one of each fuel types. Anywhere in Kent, Kempes Corner included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Kempes Corner, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Through your filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may show up, perhaps midway across Kempes Corner or returning from Eastwell Manor. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M20, under 3 miles from Kempes Corner, by the first junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
A quick hop across Kempes Corner to the car park by Moat is one thing; driving towards Canterbury, under 10 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the vehicle has stopped, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. When it's spotted quickly, permanent damage is very unusual.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Kempes Corner
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Kempes Corner: a side street near Baptist Chapel, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether the engine has run, since those replies decide this work.
Then that tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it must be. Then fresh diesel, and then a test of your vehicle. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided your engine has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, your system is primed with clean diesel. At that point we start it and you set off, whether from a parking space at Wye or a driveway in Kempes Corner. Before we go, we check it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Kempes Corner, for a moment
Kempes Corner is a small hamlet in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 55 metres, approximately 9.9 miles from Canterbury. Kempes Corner is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's rural nature. Kempes Corner sits within a network of nearby settlements, including Boughton Lees, Boughton Aluph, and Boughton Corner, in the wider countryside of Kent.
Kempes Corner and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Kempes Corner go to vans that cover the towns near it — Boughton Lees, Boughton Aluph as well as Boughton Corner — and most of Kent beyond, across TN postcodes. Ring and check instead of guessing when you're by a county line, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Anywhere the car stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Kempes Corner, a rural hamlet, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Kempes Corner: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, so no fixed quote would be fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind War Memorial.
Ahead of any figure, never after, every call from Kempes Corner begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single fixed number.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car around Kempes Corner, still?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Kempes Corner or wherever in Kent, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran.