AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Old Ford? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; damage just starts when your pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Old Ford, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Old Ford: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- Call just where you are. Say a E3 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Parnell Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Moving the vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Old Ford forecourt you're on, the Shell or any other. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not blend. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Festubert Place last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it's pulled in, the damage takes two forms. 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, and so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Old Ford with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; where it is only in your tank, nothing changes. Then there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Texaco, and the issue is thinned fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it causes nothing.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Homerton or the middle of Old Ford.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere across Greater London your vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Old Ford: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may look the same. No one means it; many designs invite it. Usually it's never the forecourt: a driver picks up a container driving home and pours it in at home.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Old Ford Primary - A Paradigm Academy the refill is hurried. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive close to Eden Way. One more pattern: dim light, the car park by Eleanor Arms, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented motors, brand-new vehicles, company vehicles, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least known cars get it the most. Wherever you're in Old Ford or the rest of Greater London, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Old Ford, and your engine started?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It has been drawn through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Maybe coming back from Lefevre Park, or part way across Old Ford, your engine may run rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or stall. No restarting to test: stop once it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M11, under 5 miles from Old Ford, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Old Ford to the car park by Giant Flower is a very different job from a run towards London, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Old Ford?
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that's a road beside Francis Lee Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Old Ford, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if your motor has been run, because those answers decide this work.
Then that tank is cleared where the car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not flush out unaided. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Finally, the system is primed with new diesel. Whether it is a parking space by Hackney Wick or a drive in Old Ford, that is where our engineers start the engine and you set off. Our engineers confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we go. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Old Ford, briefly
Old Ford is a suburban area in East London, situated on the banks of the River Lea. Old Ford sits at a low elevation of around 12 metres, close to the Olympic Park and nearby areas such as Bow and Hackney Wick. Old Ford is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, which reflects the typical residential architecture of the region. Old Ford is located near Hitchin Square, which provides local amenities and services.
AdBlue drains around Old Ford and across Greater London
The teams that answer AdBlue jobs in Old Ford also cover the locations round it, Bow, Hitchin Square and Hackney Wick among them, and most of Greater London beyond, across the E postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Wherever the vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Old Ford, a residential suburb, well.
Old Ford: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no honest single price, since the jobs aren't the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open driveway is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Wrights Road Community Centre.
For that in mind, each call from Old Ford begins with the same trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of any quote. When those are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Old Ford and still alongside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Old Ford or wherever in Greater London.