AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Kemsing? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the 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 the system draws it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly flushed where the vehicle stands in Kemsing. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Kemsing: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call just where you are. Say a TN15 6 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not:
- Moving the car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch up St. Edith's Road.
- Emptying that tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Kemsing forecourt you're on, the Sainsbury's included. On that drive, your car remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, and that is why a vehicle filled in Heaverham last night and not started stays the straightforward one, provided no one touches your key.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Kemsing with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's only in the tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and this problem is diluted fuel. No damage comes while it sits put, blended into the diesel — only when your motor works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether the car is in Greatness or the heart of Kemsing, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in Kent.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Kemsing: how it ends up there
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. It usually takes place outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Kemsing Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. Close to West End, someone tips a bottle in at home after work. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the car in dim light, parked in the car park by The Bell.
The least known cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, company cars, and the spare car in a family with one of each fuels. Anywhere around Kent, Kemsing as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kemsing?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. It's been pulled through the filter and the lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Perhaps returning from St Edith's Well, or midway across Kemsing, your motor might run rough, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or cut out. No restarting to check: pull over when it is safe, then switch it off. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M26, under a mile from Kemsing, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Kemsing to park near St Edith's Hall and a drive of under 25 miles towards London are very different jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the engine has been started. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it is caught quickly.
Kemsing: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road by St Mary the Virgin, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has stopped in Kemsing, our engineers come to it. What got in, roughly the quantity, plus whether your motor has been run: our engineers check before all else, since those decide the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together when the tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through because what remains will not wash away by itself. A test of your vehicle comes last, after clean diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, if necessary, replaced. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, if the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. You set off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Kemsing or in a space at the nearest station. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Kemsing and where it is
Kemsing is a small village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 99 metres, and is located approximately 20 miles from London. Kemsing has a population of around 1023 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Kemsing is near to several other small places, including Noahs Ark, Crowdleham, and Childsbridge, and is within commuting distance of the capital city. Kemsing sits in the rolling countryside of the South East of England.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Kemsing included
Noahs Ark, Crowdleham and Childsbridge are among the places near Kemsing that the same teams serve, along with most of Kent beyond, over the TN postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Anywhere the vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Kemsing, a rural village, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Kemsing?
Each job is different, so not one fixed price is honest. The cost changes 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 rests on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Kemsing Library.
Ahead of a quote, never after, each enquiry from Kemsing opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, plus if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside the vehicle around Kemsing?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best move available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Kemsing or wherever in Kent, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran.