AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Kettering? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens until the motor sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Kettering, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Kettering, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Remove your keys, which prevents someone switching the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the amount, so do not throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting NN16 8, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance up Lower Street.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your car off the island if you're on a forecourt around Kettering, whether it is the Texaco or somewhere else. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Thorpe Malsor last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and tiny passages; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. A car left standing around Kettering with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel running past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Sainsbury's and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left in the tank, it does none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, and so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Barton Seagrave or the centre of Kettering alike.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever around Northamptonshire the car has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Kettering
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. No one intends it. It usually happens at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. The top-up gets hurried outside St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped off. Near Gold Street, someone pours a container in on the drive in the evening. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Peacock.
It takes place most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are around Kettering or the rest of Northamptonshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kettering, and the engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that's where it travels.
You may notice your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Meadow Road Park or halfway across Kettering. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M1, under 25 miles from Kettering, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Kettering to the car park by Toller Meeting Room is a very different job from a run towards Leicester, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. If it's noticed soon, long-term damage is very rare.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Kettering
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Kettering: a side street close to Irregular Art Hub, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has run, since those replies determine the work.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. A full flush counts far more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't wash out by itself. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. Then we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space at the nearest station or a drive in Kettering. Our technicians make sure it runs correctly on new diesel before leaving. No workshop is needed at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Kettering, for a moment
Kettering is a town in Northamptonshire, situated on the River Ise in the East Midlands region of England. Kettering sits at an elevation of around 90 metres, with the nearby villages of Wadcroft, Weekley, and Warkton forming part of its wider urban area. Kettering has a population of approximately 33451 people, predominantly living in terraced housing. Kettering is located 66.8 miles north of London and 23.5 miles northeast of Leicester.
AdBlue drains across Kettering and Northamptonshire
Over the NN postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs around Kettering reach most of Northamptonshire as well, Wadcroft, Weekley and Warkton included. Ring and check rather than guess when you are close to a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
No moving is needed. In Kettering, a riverside town, a van that comes to you fits: your car is emptied on the spot, be it on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Kettering: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat price would be fair, since each job differs. Three things move the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind Newlands Shopping Centre.
Which fluid got in, how much, plus if the engine ran: every Kettering call begins with precisely that, before a quote, not after. When they are known, a range becomes a single firm figure.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In Kettering and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether it ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Northamptonshire, Kettering included.