Lade: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and the ignition as well. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens till your motor pulls it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Lade, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lade: the first few minutes
Do:
- Remove your keys, which prevents someone switching the power on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TN29 9, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself starts the pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Taylor Road.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road is not one to try.
Moving the vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Lade forecourt you're on, the Usher Motors included. At your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Littlestone-on-Sea last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it is flushed out. A car left standing around Lade with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Esso, and the issue is thinned fuel. Mixed through your diesel and sitting still, it is harmless for now; running your engine is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, because it does not burn. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue splits back out of your diesel, and so thinning it can't help. That is why the flush matters more, and turning the key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Lydd or the centre of Lade alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits just in that tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, wherever your vehicle has come to rest across Kent.
Lade: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual story.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Greatstone Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Toby Road. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Romney Tavern, your vehicle gets refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, an identical first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you are around Lade or the remainder of Kent.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lade?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Your filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Lydd Golf Club, perhaps, or part way across Lade. Stop when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Lade sits under 15 miles from the M20; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Lade to park beside Sea View and a drive of under 25 miles towards Canterbury are such distinct jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's noticed early.
Lade: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Wherever it has come to rest in Lade — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside Heysham Hall — the van travels to your car. Before anything else we ask what was put in, about how much, and whether your engine has run, since those replies decide the work.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Finally, the system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space outside Appledore (Kent) or a drive around Lade, that is where our engineers start the car and you head off. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. As the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Lade
Lade is a small coastal suburban area in Kent, situated near the Dungeness headland and close to the villages of Greatstone-on-Sea and Lydd-on-Sea. Lade has a low elevation of around 4 metres above sea level, reflecting its coastal setting. Lade is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock, typical of many suburban areas in the South East of England. Lade is located approximately 61 miles from London and 23 miles from the city of Canterbury.
AdBlue drains around Lade and across Kent
Greatstone-on-Sea, Lydd-on-Sea and Dungeness are among the places near Lade that the same teams serve, along with most of Kent beyond, over the TN postcode area. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Lade is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Lade: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No flat figure would be honest, because each job differs. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the 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 our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Romney Sands.
That's why each call from Lade starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still next to the car around Lade?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Kent, Lade included.