AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marlow? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your engine off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it is sucked through your lines — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Marlow. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Marlow, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take the keys away.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and we will see.
- Ring just where you are. Quote a SL7 1 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch down Market Square.
- Emptying that tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
The staff working at any Marlow filling station — the Murco among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. At home, the car remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was meant to go that way.
It doesn't combine. After it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the intake sucks from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is how a car filled in Winter Hill yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward case, provided no one touches the key.
From there it does two kinds of harm. 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 components it reaches for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it overnight in Marlow makes it worse. In your tank only, time does nothing. And there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a problem of thin fuel. No harm is done as long as it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only once your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, and so watering it can't help. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Temple or the centre of Marlow alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Wherever in Buckinghamshire the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Marlow: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally under one flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; many designs invite it. Usually it is not the forecourt: a driver buys a container heading home and pours it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Holy Trinity Church of England (Aided) School. Someone pours the container in at home, right off High Street, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark by The Grand Assembly, the car gets refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a company vehicle, or the spare motor of a home with both fuels — the vehicles people use the least. An identical mistake, same first step — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be around Marlow or the remainder of Buckinghamshire.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Marlow, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and lines.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Riley Park, say, or midway across Marlow. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M40, under 3 miles from Marlow, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, so heading for St Albans, under 25 miles away, gives a much bigger job than crossing Marlow to the car park by Everyman. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Spotted early, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Marlow: what it takes
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Marlow: a side street close to Liston Court, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, about how much, plus whether the motor has been run: our engineers ask first, because those decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is drained, on the spot. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not wash out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, outside the nearest station or on a drive around Marlow. Before leaving, we confirm it is running correctly with fresh diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Marlow and where it is
Marlow is a riverside town in Buckinghamshire, situated on the River Thames at an elevation of 36 metres. Marlow has a population of approximately 14204 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Marlow is located near several smaller communities, including Bovingdon Green, Bisham, and Marlow Bottom. Marlow is also within commuting distance of London, being around 28.3 miles from the city centre.
AdBlue drains around Marlow and across Buckinghamshire
Bovingdon Green, Bisham and Marlow Bottom are among the towns near Marlow that the same teams reach, together with much of Buckinghamshire further out, throughout the SL postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Wherever the vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our technicians drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Marlow, a riverside town, well.
Marlow: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job is different, and so not one fixed quote would be fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Marlow Methodist Church.
That's why every call from Marlow starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. With them, a range shrinks to a single firm figure.
You hear that quote by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Marlow: still alongside the vehicle?
Then, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Marlow or anywhere in Buckinghamshire.