AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Norbury? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts when your pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Norbury, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the engine has been run. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Norbury, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting CR7 8, or whichever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Moving your car just a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run the pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance along Kensington Avenue is too far to drive the car.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
The staff on duty at any Norbury forecourt — the the nearest petrol station included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. 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 Streatham Vale last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle sitting around Norbury. Only inside your tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel running past them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol at the Texaco. Blended through the diesel and sitting still, it is no threat for now; running the motor is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It can't just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Norbury or out in West Norwood, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Greater London the car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Norbury?
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs invite it. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Kensington Avenue Primary School the refill is rushed. Close to Golf Close, someone pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Welcome Inn.
The least known vehicles get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet cars, and the other vehicle of a family with both fuel types. Anywhere in Greater London, Norbury as well, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first response: leave it switched off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Norbury?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been pulled through your filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any might show up, perhaps part way across Norbury or returning from Manor Farm Nature Reserve. No restarting to check: stop when safe, then turn it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
On the M4, under 10 miles from Norbury, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Hopping across Norbury to the car park by St Oswald is one thing; driving for Westminster, under 10 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once your engine has run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's spotted quickly.
Norbury: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road by Highbury Community & Sports Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the vehicle has stopped around Norbury, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run, since those answers settle the work.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the engine has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Norbury or in a space by the nearest station. Before we go, our engineers confirm it is running properly with new diesel in. Since the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Norbury and where it is
Norbury is a suburban area in south London, situated near the River Wandle and close to several other neighbourhoods including Upper Norwood and Thornton Heath. Norbury sits at an elevation of around 40 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Norbury is located approximately 6.7 miles from central London, with nearby Norwood New Town also being a notable local landmark.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Norbury included
Upper Norwood, Thornton Heath and Norwood New Town are among the places near Norbury that the same vans reach, along with much of Greater London further out, over the CR postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you are close to a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Wherever the car sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our technicians empty it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Norbury, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Norbury?
Since each jobs vary, a flat figure would not be honest. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Sunbeam Mission.
Which fluid went in, how much, and if it ran: each Norbury enquiry begins by asking exactly those, before any quote, not afterwards. When those are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Still next to the vehicle around Norbury?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best move there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Norbury or anywhere in Greater London.