AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Keston? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave your motor off and leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until your engine pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Keston, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Keston: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, take the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not bin it away.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting BR2 6, or simply the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Not to do:
- Moving the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch down Heathfield Road.
- By the road, don't try draining it on your own.
The attendants working at any Keston forecourt — the the nearest petrol station among them — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to go that way.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles low where the intake takes its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Hayes last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. A vehicle left sitting in Keston with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the main problem. No damage comes while it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car sits in Locksbottom or the centre of Keston, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the next tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Greater London the vehicle is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Keston
It's not deliberate. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside Keston Church of England Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills your car. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Commonside. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park by The Fox Inn, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Keston or the rest of Greater London, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Keston?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running time takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may notice your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Padmall Wood or halfway across Keston. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M25, under 5 miles from Keston, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Keston to the car park by Keston War Memorial. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it's noticed quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Keston: what it takes
A street beside Keston Village Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has stopped in Keston, we travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether your motor has run, since those answers decide this work.
Next, draining your tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. A test of the car comes at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter is flushed or, if necessary, swapped. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, at Hayes (Kent) or on a drive around Keston. It is checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we go. Since the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Keston and where it is
Keston is a small village in Greater London, situated near the River Ravensbourne and characterised by its detached housing stock. Keston sits at an elevation of 121 metres, with nearby settlements including Keston Mark, Nash, and Coney Hall. Keston is located approximately 12 miles from central London, with Westminster around 11 miles away. Keston has a population of around 582 residents, living in a predominantly rural setting.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Keston included
Throughout the BR postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs in Keston reach much of Greater London as well, Keston Mark, Nash and Coney Hall among them. Assuming doesn't help by a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
Anywhere your car stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — we empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Keston, a village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Keston: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, so no fixed price is honest. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Caesar's Camp.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Keston begins by asking the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether it ran — before a quote. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. As the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Beside the car around Keston, right now?
Then, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Keston or anywhere in Greater London.