Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Maylandsea
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing starts until the engine sucks it through. In Maylandsea, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Maylandsea: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so do not bin it out.
- Give us a postcode starting CM3 6, or whatever street is closest, and our van finds you directly — so call wherever you are.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's wasted.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance down Marine Parade.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
Get the attendants to help you move the vehicle away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Maylandsea, whether it's the Texaco or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the pickup draws from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Steeple last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Once it is sucked in, the harm takes two forms. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on any part it touches until it is removed from the system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow passages. A car left standing in Maylandsea with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Woodfords Garage. No damage comes as long as it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only when your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so watering it won't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other mistake — in Mundon or the centre of Maylandsea alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Essex your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Maylandsea
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — can look the same. No one intends it; many designs allow it. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in at home.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside Maylandsea Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped in. Someone tips the bottle in at home, right off Mayland Quay, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark outside Hardy's Bar & Grill, the vehicle gets refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new motors, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. An identical slip, same first response — leave it off — anywhere you are around Maylandsea or the remainder of Essex.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Maylandsea, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Through the filter, through the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Perhaps returning from Lawling Recreation Ground, or midway across Maylandsea, your engine may go lumpy, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. When you safely can, stop and switch everything off — with no restarting to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M25, under 25 miles from Maylandsea, at the first junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Maylandsea to park beside St Lukes Chapel and a drive of under 15 miles for Southend-on-Sea are such different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the motor has been running. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it is noticed quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Maylandsea
Wherever it has come to rest in Maylandsea — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside St Mary — our van comes to the car. The work rests on three replies, which our technicians get before all else — which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if your motor has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't wash out by itself. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a check of the vehicle. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Last, the system is bled with fresh diesel. Then our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space at Althorne or a driveway in Maylandsea. The check before we head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Maylandsea, briefly
Maylandsea is a small coastal village in Essex, situated near the River Blackwater estuary and close to the nearby settlements of Mayland, Althorne, and Latchingdon. Maylandsea has a low elevation of around 11 metres above sea level and is located approximately 39.8 miles from London. Maylandsea is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Maylandsea is also near the city of Southend-on-Sea, which is about 10.3 miles away.
Maylandsea and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the CM postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs around Maylandsea serve much of Essex as well, Mayland, Althorne and Latchingdon included. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Maylandsea is a coastal village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Maylandsea: the cost of fixing it
Since the jobs vary, a flat figure would not be honest. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight spot behind Christ Church.
That is why each call from Maylandsea starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. Given those replies, a range narrows to one firm number.
Before a van heads out, you are told our quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Still alongside your car in Maylandsea?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Maylandsea or anywhere around Essex.