AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Marshmoor? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep your motor off then leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only comes when your pump begins pulling it. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully flushed where the vehicle stands around Marshmoor. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Marshmoor
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, and that prevents anyone switching the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting AL9 5, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the spot.
Never:
- Don't start your engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Even a short stretch up Great North Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the roadside.
On a forecourt around Marshmoor, whether it's the Welham Green Service Station or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle clear of the pump. On the drive, the vehicle stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the very place the pickup sucks from. A motor topped up on a drive in South Hatfield yesterday evening and not started since counts as the straightforward case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though when the motor runs, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it is flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage by morning for a car parked in Marshmoor. Just in the tank, it stays stable. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, so the water content harms them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Gulf and you have a problem of thin fuel. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in your tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Whether the vehicle is in Woodside or the centre of Marshmoor, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not stay blended, and so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever around Hertfordshire your vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Marshmoor?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; many designs allow it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Mary's Church of England VA Primary School, Welham Green the top-up is hurried. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Marshmoor Crescent, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by The Sibthorpe Arms.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company cars, and the other vehicle in a home with both fuel types. Anywhere around Hertfordshire, Marshmoor included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Marshmoor, and the engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. It has been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Millward's Park, perhaps, or part way across Marshmoor. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep it off instead of restarting it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the A1(M), under 3 miles from Marshmoor, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across Marshmoor to park near Vincenzo Lunardi and a drive of under 10 miles for St Albans are very separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's noticed soon.
Marshmoor: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a road near North Mymms Memorial Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Marshmoor, and the van comes to it. What went in, about the quantity, plus if your engine has turned over: our engineers check first, since those decide the job.
Then that tank is cleared where the car waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing your vehicle comes last, after clean diesel is added and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. You head off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Marshmoor or in a space outside Welham Green. It is tested on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians go. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Marshmoor
Marshmoor is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated near the River Colne and close to the cities of St Albans and London. Marshmoor has a relatively low elevation of 94 metres and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Marshmoor is located near other local places such as Welham Green, Lower Woodside, and Oxlease, and is home to a population of around 932 residents.
AdBlue drains across Marshmoor and Hertfordshire
Welham Green, Lower Woodside and Oxlease are among the towns around Marshmoor that the same teams reach, together with much of Hertfordshire beyond, over the AL postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
Anywhere your car sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Marshmoor, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Marshmoor: the cost of fixing it
Because the jobs differ, a single price wouldn't be fair. Three things move the price: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight spot behind North Mymms Social Club.
Before a figure, not after, each enquiry from Marshmoor begins with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. With them, the range shrinks to a single fixed number.
You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the car around Marshmoor?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Marshmoor or anywhere in Hertfordshire.