Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in North Harrow
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and the ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble begins once it's sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully cleaned where your car stands around North Harrow. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, North Harrow: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much quantity? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will know.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting HA2 7, or just the name of a street nearby, and so call from the car.
Not to do:
- Shifting your vehicle even a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch up Hawthorn Drive.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
The attendants working at any North Harrow filling station — the Esso among them — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It doesn't combine. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its supply from. A motor filled on a drive in Pinner yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — though once your engine turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. By daybreak, a car sitting in North Harrow with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's just inside that tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger fault?
A problem of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and left inside your tank, it causes nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Roxeth or the middle of North Harrow.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just in your tank, the simplest section of the entire system to clear, anywhere the vehicle has stopped around Greater London.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in North Harrow?
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. A container bought while heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the typical story.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Longfield Primary School. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, right off Imperial Drive, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Three Wishes, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, company cars, and the other vehicle in a family with both fuel types. Wherever you're in North Harrow or the rest of Greater London, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in North Harrow, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Perhaps coming back from Rayners Mead, or part way across North Harrow, your engine might run rough, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
North Harrow sits under 5 miles from the M1; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, so heading for Westminster, under 15 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across North Harrow to the car park by St Alban. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. Caught early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around North Harrow: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest around North Harrow — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by North Harrow Community Library — our van travels to your car. Three replies shape the work, so first our technicians ask which fluid was put in, roughly what quantity, plus if your motor has run.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the last step. You head off as soon as we have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around North Harrow or in a bay at Harrow-on-the-Hill. Our engineers check it runs properly on new diesel before we leave. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About North Harrow, for a moment
North Harrow is a suburban area in northwest London, situated near the River Pinn and close to the tube stations of Rayners Lane and West Harrow. North Harrow has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. North Harrow sits at an elevation of around 55 metres, about 11 miles from central London, and is bordered by other suburban areas like Headstone. North Harrow is a relatively densely populated area, with around 10,300 residents,
AdBlue drains across Greater London, North Harrow included
Rayners Lane, West Harrow and Headstone are among the places near North Harrow that the same teams reach, together with much of Greater London beyond, throughout the HA postcode area. Guessing won't help close to a border or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
Wherever your vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits North Harrow, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around North Harrow
Every job differs, and so not one single quote would be honest. What moves the price is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Harrow Quaker Meeting.
Ahead of any figure, never after, each enquiry from North Harrow opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus if the engine ran. When those are answered, a range becomes one fixed number.
You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Still beside the vehicle in North Harrow?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran are all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Greater London, North Harrow too.