Kentford: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly flushed where the car stands in Kentford. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Kentford
Do these:
- Remove your keys, which prevents anyone turning the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and we can see.
- Ring just where you are. Say a CB8 7 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way down Herringswell Road.
- By the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
On a forecourt around Kentford, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle away from the pump. On that drive, the car stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a driveway in Moulton yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though when the motor turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle parked in Kentford. Just in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Tesco, and this problem is thinned fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in that tank, it does nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Gazeley or the middle of Kentford.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Suffolk the vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Kentford: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A bottle bought while driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the typical route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Kennett Primary School the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Bury Road. Else, after dark outside The Kentford, your car gets topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it the most — hire cars, new cars, company ones, and the other car of a family with one of each fuel types. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere in Kentford or the remainder of Suffolk you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Kentford?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Perhaps returning from MacLaren Playing Fields, or part way across Kentford, the motor might go rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. Once safe, pull over and turn it off — with no restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M11, under 25 miles from Kentford, at the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so driving for Ely, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Kentford to the car park by St Mary the Virgin, Kentford. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it's noticed soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Kentford?
Wherever it has come to rest in Kentford — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road by Kentford and Kennett Village Sign — our van travels to the car. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if your engine has run, because those answers decide this work.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed right through because what remains won't flush out by itself. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we turn up, provided the engine hasn't run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes last. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, at Kennett or on a driveway around Kentford. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Kentford
Kentford is a small village in Suffolk, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 35 metres. Kentford lies near the villages of Kennett End and Needham Street, and is close to the city of Ely. Kentford has a population of approximately 505 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Kentford is located in the eastern region of England, about 59 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Suffolk, Kentford included
Throughout the CB postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs around Kentford serve most of Suffolk too, Kennett End, Needham Street and Kennett included. Near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than assuming, and so ring.
No towing is needed. In Kentford, a village, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is emptied on the spot, whether in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Kentford?
Each job differs, so not one single quote would be fair. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind Kentford and Kennett Village Hall.
Before a quote, not after, every enquiry from Kentford opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Once they are known, a range becomes one fixed number.
Before a van sets off, you are told our price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still next to the vehicle around Kentford?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Suffolk, Kentford included.