AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kennington Lees? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition as well. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts when the pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Kennington Lees, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the engine has been run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kennington Lees
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting TN24 9, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the spot.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way along Towers View.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Moving your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Kennington Lees forecourt you are on, the Willesborough Kennington Garages included. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to your exhaust, treating what your motor emits. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. The pickup takes fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bybrook 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.
After it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny channels; and, since it eats at certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight around Kennington Lees makes it worse. Inside your tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing through them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error over at the Sainsbury's, and this issue is thinned fuel. No damage comes as long as it stays put, blended into your diesel — only once your engine works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Potters Corner or the middle of Kennington Lees.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Kent the car has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Kennington Lees?
It is not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Goat Lees Primary School. Close to Guernsey Way, a driver tips a container in on the drive after work. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside The Rose, and a driver using that flap the first time.
Rented cars, new motors, fleet motors, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Kennington Lees or the remainder of Kent you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kennington Lees?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed through the filter and lines.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from The Green or halfway across Kennington Lees. When safe, stop then switch everything off — without restarting to test. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Kennington Lees lies under a mile from the M20; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Kennington Lees to the car park by Kennington United Reformed Methodist Church 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 roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. If it's spotted early, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Kennington Lees: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street by Eastwell Towers, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has come to rest around Kennington Lees, our engineers travel to it. What was put in, about the quantity, and if the engine has turned over: we ask first, since those decide the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when the tank is drained, on the spot. Your system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if needed, replaced. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime the system on clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, outside Ashford International or on a driveway in Kennington Lees. It is checked on fresh diesel to be sure it runs properly before we head off. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Kennington Lees, for a moment
Kennington Lees is a suburban area in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 61 metres, and is located near the city of Canterbury. Kennington Lees is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is part of a larger residential area that includes nearby places such as Goat Lees and Bockhanger. Kennington Lees has a population of approximately 4968 residents, and is positioned around 11.5 miles from Canterbury and 49.3 miles from London.
Kennington Lees and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Kennington Lees also cover the spots around it, Goat Lees, Bockhanger and Kennington among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the TN postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess if you are close to a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
A van that comes to you fits Kennington Lees, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the car to us, since we empty it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Kennington Lees: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so not one fixed price would be fair. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight spot behind St. Mary's Kennington.
Ahead of a figure, not after, every call from Kennington Lees opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, and if it ran. With them, the range narrows to one fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Kennington Lees: still alongside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Kennington Lees or anywhere in Kent.