AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Love Green? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble just starts when the pump starts pulling it. In Love Green, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Love Green: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will know.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting SL0 9, or simply the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it's pointless.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short way down Love Green Lane.
- Emptying that tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the car off the pumps if you are at a forecourt in Love Green, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or somewhere else. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. 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 Richings Park last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
After it's pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Love Green with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's just inside that tank, nothing changes. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water content damages them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. No damage is done while it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your car sits in Little Britain or the heart of Love Green, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only in that tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has stopped in Buckinghamshire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Love Green?
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Mostly it is not the forecourt: a driver buys a container heading home and pours it in at home.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside The Iver Village Junior School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the kids were dropped in. After work, a container is tipped in on a drive close to Swallow Street. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Whip And Collar, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a new car, a company motor, or the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuels — the cars people know the least. An identical slip, an identical first response — keep it off — anywhere you are around Love Green or the remainder of Buckinghamshire.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Love Green?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been pulled through the filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Maybe returning from Swallow Street Woodland, or midway across Love Green, your engine may go rough, smoke, lose power, light up your dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M25, under a mile from Love Green, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Love Green to the car park by Coppins. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after your engine has been running. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it is noticed quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Love Green: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped in Love Green — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside St Peter — the van travels to your car. What got in, roughly the quantity, and if your engine has turned over: we ask first, since those decide the job.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. After that, the filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of the car. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
New diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Iver or on a driveway around Love Green. It's checked on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians go. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Love Green and where it is
Love Green is a suburban area in Buckinghamshire, situated inland at an elevation of 47 metres, and is located approximately 16.8 miles from London. Love Green forms part of the commuter belt around the capital, with nearby places including Iver, Shreding Green, and Iver Heath. Love Green has a population of around 2249 residents, who mostly live in semi-detached housing.
Love Green and Buckinghamshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the SL postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Love Green reach most of Buckinghamshire too, Iver, Shreding Green and Iver Heath included. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
A van that comes to you suits Love Green, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the car to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Love Green: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things move the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Iver Heath Village Hall.
Before a figure, never after, every enquiry from Love Green opens with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our price on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Love Green and still beside the car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Love Green or anywhere around Buckinghamshire.