Osterley: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Osterley. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
What to do right now, Osterley: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting TW7 5, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: the engine stays off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, so it is wasted.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Jersey Road.
- By the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
At a forecourt in Osterley, whether it is the Tesco or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. At home, the car remains just as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It does not combine. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its supply from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Isleworth last night and never switched on remains the straightforward case, provided nobody turns your key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; meanwhile, because it eats at some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. Pipes holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked around Osterley. Only in the tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers none of that, which is a separate kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed through your diesel and left still, it's no threat for now; using your motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the next tankful won't clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Osterley or out in Woodlands, costs more than almost any other error.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Greater London the car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Osterley
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's not the forecourt: someone buys a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Marlborough Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Ridgeway Road North. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Hare and Hounds, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company vehicle, or the other motor in a family with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers use the least. Anywhere in Greater London, Osterley included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: keep it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Osterley?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may appear, perhaps part way across Osterley or returning from Jersey Gardens. Once safe, stop and switch everything off — without restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M4, under a mile from Osterley, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Hopping across Osterley to the car park by Thistleworth Tennis Club is one thing; driving for Westminster, under 10 miles away, is another, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it is noticed early.
Osterley: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped around Osterley — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Wycombe House Cricket and Social Club — the van comes to the vehicle. What got in, about the quantity, and if the motor has been run: our engineers ask first, since those shape the work.
Next, emptying that tank right there takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not wash out by itself. Testing the vehicle follows at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, if needed, replaced. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Finally, the fuel system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it's a parking bay by Syon Lane or a drive around Osterley, that is where our technicians start the engine and you drive off. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Osterley, briefly
Osterley is a suburban area in west London, situated approximately 9 miles from the city centre. Osterley sits at an elevation of around 31 metres, with nearby places including Spring Grove, Lampton, and Brentford End. Osterley has a population of around 4277 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Osterley is located near the River Thames, close to the town of Brentford.
Osterley and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Osterley also cover the spots round it, Spring Grove, Lampton and Brentford End among them, and most of Greater London beyond, across the TW postcode area. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you fits Osterley, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, because we empty it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Osterley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, so not one fixed price is fair. What changes the cost is, first, whether the engine 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 reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Grasshoppers Rugby Football Club.
For that in mind, each enquiry from Osterley begins with the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Given those replies, the range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Osterley: still next to the car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best move available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Osterley or anywhere in Greater London, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.