Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Coulsdon
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble starts once it is pulled through your pump — it will not ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Old Coulsdon. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Old Coulsdon: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it out.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting CR5 1, or simply the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way along Waddington Avenue.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the kerbside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the island if you're on a forecourt around Old Coulsdon, whether it's the Shell or elsewhere. At home, the vehicle stays just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It doesn't blend. After it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Coulsdon overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it will be first through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of damage come from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. A motor left sitting around Old Coulsdon with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Esso. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside that tank, it causes nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so watering it won't work. Hence the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm here than nearly any other slip — in Hooley or the centre of Old Coulsdon alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across Greater London your car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Old Coulsdon?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs invite it. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The top-up gets hurried outside Keston Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken in. A driver tips the container in outside their house, just off Tollers Lane, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Tudor Rose, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new car, a company motor, or the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people use least. Same mistake, same first response — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be in Old Coulsdon or the rest of Greater London.
Old Coulsdon: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, along the lines, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, maybe midway across Old Coulsdon or returning from Lacey Green. No starting it again to check: stop once safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M23, under 3 miles from Old Coulsdon, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Old Coulsdon to the car park by 17th Purley Scout Group is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once your engine has been running. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it's noticed early.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Old Coulsdon: what it takes
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Old Coulsdon: a side street near St John The Evangelist, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if the engine has run, because those answers determine the work.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. The filter is flushed, 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 hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime the system on new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where the vehicle is parked, by Coulsdon South or on a driveway around Old Coulsdon. It is checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs properly before we go. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Old Coulsdon
Old Coulsdon is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 14 miles from central London and near the North Downs. Old Coulsdon has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and it is close to nearby places like Kenley and Chaldon. Old Coulsdon sits at an elevation of around 167 metres, giving it a relatively high vantage point in the area. Old Coulsdon is also near Netherne on-the-Hill, another local community.
Old Coulsdon and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs in Old Coulsdon also cover the locations around it, Kenley, Netherne on-the-Hill and Chaldon among them, and most of Greater London beyond, across the CR postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
A mobile service suits Old Coulsdon, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the car to us, since our engineers drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Old Coulsdon
There's no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Old Coulsdon Centre for the retired.
Ahead of a quote, never after, each call from Old Coulsdon begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Their answers narrow a range down to one number.
Before a van sets off, you are told the price on the phone. And you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Old Coulsdon: still next to the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Old Coulsdon or anywhere across Greater London.