New House: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts till your engine sucks it round. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully cleaned where the vehicle stands in New House. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around New House
Things to do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and about how much quantity? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting DA11 8, or just the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Things not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's pointless.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short way down Coldharbour Road.
- By the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
On a forecourt in New House, whether it is the Texaco or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle clear of the pump. On the drive, your car stays exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a dedicated tank it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is how a car topped up in Kings Farm yesterday and not switched on remains the simple one, provided no one turns the key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. By daybreak, a car parked around New House with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is just in the tank, it doesn't. Then there's the water: it offers no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Morrisons, and the issue is thinned fuel. No harm comes while it stays put, blended into the diesel — only when the motor works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of New House or out in Northfleet, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Kent the car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around New House?
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two can appear identical. Nobody means it. A bottle picked up when heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. The top-up gets hurried outside Shears Green Infant School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped in. Near Bucks Cross Road, someone tips a bottle in on the drive after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Six Bells.
Rented motors, new motors, fleet vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least known cars see it the most. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to the same slip, anywhere in New House or the rest of Kent you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in New House, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Durndale Recreation Ground, or midway across New House, the motor might go rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
New House lies under 5 miles from the M2; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across New House to park near Life Start Connections and a drive of under 25 miles for Southend-on-Sea are such different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around New House?
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around New House: a side street near Coldharbour Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, roughly the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over: our technicians ask before all else, since those decide the work.
Right there, your tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. A careful flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't wash out by itself. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of your vehicle. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Last, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. After that our technicians start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking space outside Gravesend or a drive around New House. The check before we head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About New House itself
New House is a suburban area located on the coast of Kent, with an elevation of 37 metres, and is situated near several local parks and green spaces, including Wombwell Park and Pepper Hill. New House has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most prevalent, and its proximity to Southend-on-Sea makes it a desirable residential location. New House is also relatively close to London, being approximately 21 miles from the city centre. New House has a population of around 8719 residents, according to recent estimates.
New House and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs around New House also cover the places around it, Wombwell Park, Pepper Hill and Perry Street among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the DA postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
New House is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in New House?
No flat price would be honest, since every job is different. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight gap behind Nightingale Close Community Hall.
Ahead of any quote, not after, every enquiry from New House opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van heads out, you hear our quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
In New House and still next to your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across New House or wherever within Kent, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.