AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Northgate? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then keep your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble just starts once your pump begins drawing it. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Northgate. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Northgate
Do these:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the amount, so do not throw it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting CT1 1, or whichever street lies closest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Shifting the car just a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Keep the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Union Street.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle off the pumps if you are at a forecourt in Northgate, whether it is the Asda or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It drops, because it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in St Dunstans last night and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it will be first through if the motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and narrow passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting till morning around Northgate makes things worse. In the tank alone, time costs nothing. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the main problem. No harm is done while it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. Whether your car is in Hales Place or the centre of Northgate, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever around Kent the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest part of a fuel system to empty.
Northgate: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside St Thomas' Catholic Primary School, Canterbury, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone refills your car. Close to Victoria Row, someone tips a container in on that drive after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Thomas Tallis Alehouse.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a company motor, or the other motor in a family with both fuel types — the vehicles people use the least. An identical slip, an identical first step — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be around Northgate or the rest of Kent.
Northgate: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It has been sucked through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might appear, perhaps part way across Northgate or returning from Dean's Garden. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M2, under 10 miles from Northgate, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Northgate to park beside City Space and a drive of under a mile for Canterbury are very separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it is noticed quickly.
Northgate: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street beside Curzon Cinema Riverside, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has stopped in Northgate, we come to it. Which fluid was put in, about the quantity, plus whether your motor has turned over: our technicians check before all else, since those decide the work.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. You head off as soon as our engineers have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Northgate or in a space outside Canterbury West. The check before we go is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Northgate, briefly
Northgate is a suburban area located on the riverside in Kent, with a mix of flat housing and local amenities. Northgate sits near the city of Canterbury, with which it is closely associated, and is part of the wider South East region. Northgate has a relatively low elevation of 12 metres above sea level, and its population is approximately 9039 people. Northgate is close to other nearby places, including St Stephens and St Martins.
AdBlue drains across Northgate and Kent
Canterbury, St Stephens and St Martins are among the towns near Northgate that the same vans serve, together with much of Kent beyond, over the CT postcode area. Close to a boundary, or somewhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers empty it there, with no need to take it to us; that suits Northgate, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Northgate
Because each jobs differ, a single figure would not be honest. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open driveway is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Count Louis Zborowski.
Before a quote, never afterwards, each enquiry from Northgate opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and whether it ran. When those are known, a range becomes one fixed number.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Next to the vehicle around Northgate, still?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move you can do. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Northgate or anywhere in Kent.