Marden Thorn: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once your pump starts pulling it. In Marden Thorn, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Marden Thorn
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops someone switching the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a TN12 9 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short stretch down Wilden Park Road.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Marden Thorn filling station — the Harvest Energy among them — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Great Cheveney last night and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the base of your tank, undrawn — though it would be the first thing through once the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of damage come from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle sitting in Marden Thorn. Only in your tank, it stays the same. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in your tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Staplehurst or the middle of Marden Thorn.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever the car has stopped in Kent.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Marden Thorn
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. A bottle bought while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. The top-up gets rushed outside Leigh Academy Marden, because the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped off. Close to Thorn Road, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Otherwise, after dark outside the pub in the village, your car gets refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
Hired motors, brand-new cars, company motors, or the spare vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. Wherever across Kent, Marden Thorn included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Marden Thorn?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Through the filter, along the lines, and — with any running time — into the injection pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any might show up, maybe midway across Marden Thorn or returning from /. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M20, under 10 miles from Marden Thorn, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Hopping across Marden Thorn to the car park by The South East Romany Museum is one thing; driving towards Canterbury, under 50 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to flush once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it's spotted early.
Marden Thorn: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road by Marden Library, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Marden Thorn, our technicians come to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if your engine has run, because those answers determine this work.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Testing the car follows at the end, after clean diesel goes in and your filter gets flushed or, if needed, swapped. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Finally, the system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Marden or a drive around Marden Thorn, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. It's tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs correctly before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Marden Thorn
Marden Thorn is a small hamlet in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 36 metres, and is located near the villages of Marden and Marden Beech. Marden Thorn is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Marden Thorn sits within the wider landscape of the Weald of Kent, an area known for its rolling hills and woodland. Marden Thorn is also within commuting distance of major cities, including Canterbury and London.
AdBlue drains in Marden Thorn and across Kent
AdBlue jobs in Marden Thorn go to teams that serve the towns around it — Marden, Marden Beech as well as Wanshurst Green — and much of Kent beyond, across TN postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service fits Marden Thorn, a rural hamlet: there's no need to bring the car to us, since our engineers drain it there, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Marden Thorn: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, and so not one fixed quote is honest. Three things move the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind St Michael and All Angels.
What went in, how much, and whether the engine ran: every Marden Thorn call opens by asking precisely that, before a quote, not afterwards. With them, the range narrows to a single fixed figure.
The price is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Marden Thorn: still beside the vehicle?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Marden Thorn or anywhere within Kent, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.