AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Monken Hadley? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly purged where the car sits around Monken Hadley. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Monken Hadley: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting EN5 5, or whatever street lies closest, and the van reaches you directly — so call wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition your car.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, so leave the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch down Dury Road.
- By the road, do not try emptying it on your own.
At a forecourt in Monken Hadley, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of blending — entirely unlike fuel. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup takes its fuel from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Underhill yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward one, as long as no one touches your key.
After it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; and, because it eats at certain metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Monken Hadley with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is just inside your tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing through them, and so the water part harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage is done as long as it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in New Barnet or the middle of Monken Hadley.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around Greater London your car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Monken Hadley?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is hurried outside Monken Hadley CofE Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped in. Near Sydney Chapman Way, someone pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Ye Olde Monken Holt, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It takes place most in the motors 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. An identical mistake, an identical first response — keep it off — wherever you are in Monken Hadley or the rest of Greater London.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Monken Hadley?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Watch for rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Hadley Green, say, or midway across Monken Hadley. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M25, under 3 miles from Monken Hadley, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so heading for St Albans, under 10 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Monken Hadley to the car park by Saint Mary's, Hadley. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been running. Long-term damage is very rare when it is caught soon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Monken Hadley: what it takes
The car remains where it is, whether that is a street near Battle of Barnet, a drive, a layby or a filling station in Monken Hadley, and our van comes to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has been run, because those replies settle this work.
Next, draining your tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, if the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the final step. You drive off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Monken Hadley or in a space outside Hadley Wood. Our engineers confirm it runs correctly on new diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Monken Hadley itself
Monken Hadley is a suburban area in Greater London, situated near the River Lea and close to the Hertfordshire border. Monken Hadley sits at an elevation of around 133 metres, with views across the surrounding countryside. Monken Hadley is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is located near to other local places such as Hadley and Chipping Barnet.
Monken Hadley and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the EN postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Monken Hadley serve most of Greater London too, Hadley, Chipping Barnet and Kitts End among them. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Monken Hadley, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Monken Hadley: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs vary, a single price wouldn't be fair. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Monken Hadley War Memorial.
With that reason, each enquiry from Monken Hadley opens by asking the identical trio — what went in, how much, whether it ran — before a quote. Given those replies, a range narrows to one firm number.
You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still beside your car in Monken Hadley?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran is all we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Greater London, Monken Hadley too.