Kew: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm starts once it is pulled through the lines — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Kew, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Kew
Do:
- Take your keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Call right where you are. Say a TW9 3 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Never:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Many diesels run their pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't weaken it.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Lichfield Road.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
Get the attendants to help you roll the vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Kew, whether it's the Shell or elsewhere. If you're on your own drive, leave the car exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its fuel from. A car filled on a driveway in Brentford yesterday evening and not started since is the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once the engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and narrow passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Kew makes it worse. Inside your tank alone, time does nothing. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Texaco, and this issue is thinned fuel. No harm is done as long as it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue splits back from the diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Mortlake or the centre of Kew alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Greater London your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Kew
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. Nobody intends it. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside The King's Church of England Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken off. Near Sandycombe Road, someone tips a container in at home in the evening. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside Tap on the Line, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
The least known cars see it the most — hire cars, new ones, fleet ones, and the other vehicle of a home with both fuel types. Wherever around Greater London, Kew included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Kew, and the engine started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. The filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may notice the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from St Luke's Open Space or halfway across Kew. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep it off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Kew sits under a mile from the M4; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Kew to park near Kew Scouts and a drive of under 10 miles for Westminster are such different jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the motor has been started, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. Permanent damage is very rare when it is caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Kew?
The car remains where it is, whether that is a street near Kew Library, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in Kew, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has been run, since those answers determine the work.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since residue won't wash out by itself. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided the motor hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the final step. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, by Kew Gardens or on a driveway in Kew. Before we go, we confirm it's running properly with fresh diesel in. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Kew
Kew is a suburban area in southwest London, situated near the River Thames and close to North Sheen and Strand on the Green. Kew sits at a low elevation of around 10 metres above sea level, and its proximity to Westminster, just 7.1 miles away, makes it a popular residential location. Kew is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, which house its approximate population of 8978 residents.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Kew included
Throughout the TW postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Kew reach most of Greater London too, North Sheen, Strand on the Green and Grove Park among them. Guessing won't help by a county line or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
A mobile service suits Kew, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring the car to us, because we empty it on the spot, in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Kew?
No flat price would be fair, because every job is different. The price moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Our Lady of Loreto and Saint Winefride.
That's why every call from Kew starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. With them, a range shrinks to one firm number.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In Kew and still next to your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Kew or anywhere across Greater London.