AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Linton? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts until your engine sucks it round. In Linton, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Linton: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take your keys away.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting ME17 4, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the spot.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: the motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so leave it off.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance along Cornwallis Avenue.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Get the attendants to help you move your vehicle away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Linton, whether it is the Shell or elsewhere. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor 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 built to handle it.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very spot the intake draws from. A motor filled on a drive in Loose overnight and not started since is the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when the engine runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches until it's removed from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. A motor left standing around Linton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the FASS. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue separates back from your diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush counts more, and trying the engine "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Cock Street or the centre of Linton equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around Kent your car has stopped.
Linton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of cars put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two can appear identical. No one intends it. Mostly it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Coxheath Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up your car. Someone pours the container in outside their house, just off Vicarage Fields, as the day ends. Another version: dim light, the car park outside The Bull Inn, and someone using that flap for the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new vehicles, company vehicles, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it most. Wherever you are around Linton or the rest of Kent, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Linton?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might appear, perhaps part way across Linton or coming back from Salts wod. No starting it again to check: stop once it is safe, then turn it off. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the M20, under 10 miles from Linton, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Linton to park near Linton Village Hall and a drive of under 25 miles for Southend-on-Sea are such different jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where your car has stopped. Caught quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Linton: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Linton: a side street close to St Nicholas Linton, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three replies, which we get first — what was put in, the quantity, and whether the engine has run.
Then that tank is emptied where the car sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through since what remains won't wash away by itself. A test of your vehicle comes last, after fresh diesel is added and the filter is flushed or, if necessary, replaced. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Lastly, your system is primed with fresh diesel. After that our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at East Farleigh or a driveway in Linton. Before leaving, our engineers check it's running correctly with new diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Linton
Linton is a small village in Kent, situated near several lakes and low-lying areas, with an elevation of around 41 metres. Linton lies within commuting distance of London, approximately 33.9 miles away, and is also close to the coast, with Southend-on-Sea being the nearest major urban centre. Linton has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the village. Linton is surrounded by other small settlements, including Coxheath, Boughton Green, and Boughton Monchelsea.
AdBlue drains around Linton and across Kent
The teams that answer AdBlue calls around Linton also cover the places round it, Coxheath, Boughton Green and Boughton Monchelsea among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the ME postcode area. Phone and check instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Linton is a village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Linton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Linton Park.
What got in, how much, and if it ran: each Linton call opens by asking precisely that, before a figure, never afterwards. With those replies, the range narrows to one firm number.
Before a van sets off, you hear the price by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Linton: still next to the car?
Then, do nothing — that's the best step available. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Kent, Linton included.