Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Place
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The harm begins once it's sucked through your lines — it will not ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car stands around Lower Place. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Lower Place, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call just where you are. Quote a NW10 7 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't weaken it.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way down Acton Lane.
- Emptying your tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
Rolling your vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Lower Place forecourt you are on, the Asda included. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was meant to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, which is how a car topped up in Stonebridge yesterday and not started stays the straightforward case, provided no one turns your key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car parked in Lower Place. Only in that tank, it stays the same. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on BP's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the whole problem. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in Harlesden or the heart of Lower Place, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the following fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Greater London your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Lower Place: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs allow it. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought en route home, not at the filling station.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. The refill is rushed outside Harlesden Primary School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. Someone tips the container in at home, right off Barretts Green Road, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car in dim light, stopped in the car park by Grand Junction Arms.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a company car, or the other car in a home with one of each fuels — the cars people use least. Anywhere in Greater London, Lower Place as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: keep it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lower Place?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Through the filter, along the lines, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might appear, maybe part way across Lower Place or returning from Wesley Playing Fields. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off instead of testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Lower Place sits under 3 miles from the M4; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further into your system, so driving towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Lower Place to the car park by Aussichtspunkt H&MV Office. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. When it is noticed soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Lower Place: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road beside Harley Gospel Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has come to rest in Lower Place, our engineers come to it. Which fluid went in, roughly how much, and if your engine has been run: our engineers ask before all else, because those shape the job.
Then the tank is cleared where your car stands, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing the car follows last, after clean diesel goes in and your filter gets flushed or, where necessary, replaced. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes last. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, at Harlesden or on a drive around Lower Place. Before we go, we make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Lower Place, for a moment
Lower Place is a suburban area in Greater London, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 34 metres. Lower Place lies close to several nearby places, including North Acton, Park Royal, and Old Oak Common, and is approximately 6.1 miles from London. Lower Place is predominantly composed of flat housing, reflecting the typical residential character of many London suburbs. Lower Place has a population of around 1936 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains in Lower Place and across Greater London
Over the NW postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs around Lower Place reach most of Greater London as well, North Acton, Park Royal and Old Oak Common among them. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
A van that comes to you fits Lower Place, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the car to us, because our technicians empty it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Lower Place
Every job is different, and so no single quote would be fair. Three things shift the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight spot behind Harlesden Baptist Church.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Lower Place opens by asking the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Those answers narrow the range right down to a single number.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Lower Place and still beside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Lower Place or anywhere in Greater London, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.