Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Mickleham
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the engine off and leave the ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts till the engine sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Mickleham, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has run. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Mickleham: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call just where you are. Quote a RH5 6 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Never:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance down Dell Close is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Beside the road, do not try draining it yourself.
At a forecourt in Mickleham, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car clear of the pump. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
It does not combine. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Tyrells Wood overnight and left unstarted is the simple one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once the motor runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
After it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Mickleham with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it's only inside that tank, it doesn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. No harm is done as long as it sits put, mixed into the diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. It can't simply be run through, because it does not burn. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, so watering it won't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Hawks Hill or the centre of Mickleham equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Surrey the car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Mickleham
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside St Michael's CofE Aided Infant School. Near Old London Road, a driver tips a bottle in at home after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Running Horses, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are in Mickleham or the rest of Surrey, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Mickleham: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may appear, maybe midway across Mickleham or coming back from Box Hill School Playing Fields. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Mickleham sits under 3 miles from the M25; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Mickleham to park beside St Michael and All Angels Mickleham and a drive of under 25 miles for Westminster are such separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has ended up, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's spotted quickly.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Mickleham: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Mickleham — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by War Memorial — the van travels to the car. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers get before all else — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is drained, right there. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we arrive, if the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Mickleham or in a space by Box Hill & Westhumble. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs properly before we head off. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Mickleham
Mickleham is a small village in Surrey, situated on the River Mole and surrounded by wooded hills. Mickleham sits at an elevation of 46 metres, with its riverside location making it a notable spot in the area. Mickleham is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting and relatively small population of around 514 residents. Mickleham is located near other small communities such as Fredley and Westhumble, and is within commuting distance of London, being approximately 18.5 miles from the city centre.
Mickleham and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
Fredley, Givons Grove and Westhumble are among the towns around Mickleham that the same teams serve, along with most of Surrey further out, throughout the RH postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
No moving is needed. In Mickleham, a village, a mobile service works: the vehicle is drained on the spot, be it in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Mickleham: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat price would be honest, since every job differs. What moves the cost is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Mickleham Village Hall.
That's why each call from Mickleham starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the car around Mickleham?
In that case, do nothing — that's the best step available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Mickleham or anywhere in Surrey.