Nelson Park: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage only comes once your pump starts drawing it. In Nelson Park, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Nelson Park: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, and that prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which product, and roughly what amount? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians can see.
- Call right where you are. Say a CT15 6 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Do not do these:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not weaken it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down Station Road.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
The staff working at any Nelson Park forecourt — the Shell among them — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave it precisely where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what the engine emits. No part in an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in East Langdon overnight and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through once your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it is drawn in, the harm takes two forms. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches until it is removed completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny passages. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Nelson Park leaves things worse. In your tank alone, time costs nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue splits again out of the diesel, so thinning it can't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Martin or the heart of Nelson Park equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere around Kent the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Nelson Park: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Margaret's-at-Cliffe Primary School the top-up is hurried. After work, a container goes in on a drive near Hardy Road. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Smugglers.
It happens most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that's the first step to the same slip, anywhere in Nelson Park or the rest of Kent you happen to be.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Nelson Park?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Through the filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it has gone.
Maybe returning from Alexander Field, or part way across Nelson Park, your motor may run lumpy, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M20, under 10 miles from Nelson Park, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving for Canterbury, under 15 miles away, gives a far bigger job than crossing Nelson Park to the car park by St. Margaret of Antioch. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
We do all of the rinsing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's noticed quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Nelson Park: what it takes
Anywhere it has come to rest in Nelson Park — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road by St Peter — our van comes to the car. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, and if the engine has been run: we check first, since those shape the work.
Then that tank is drained where the car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by Martin Mill or on a drive in Nelson Park. It's checked on fresh diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our engineers leave. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Nelson Park
Nelson Park is a small suburban area situated on the coast of Kent, with an elevation of 84 metres. Nelson Park lies near the villages of St Margarets at Cliffe and West Cliffe, and is within commuting distance of Canterbury. Nelson Park is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area. Nelson Park is also relatively close to the larger settlement of Martin Mill.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Nelson Park included
Throughout the CT postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Nelson Park reach much of Kent as well, St Margarets at Cliffe, West Cliffe and Martin Mill included. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
Anywhere your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Nelson Park, a residential suburb, well.
Nelson Park: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open drive is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind 5th Dover (St Margaret's) Scout Group.
With that in mind, every enquiry from Nelson Park begins by asking the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Those answers shrink the range down to one figure.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
In Nelson Park and still alongside the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Nelson Park or anywhere within Kent.