Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pot Common
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts till the engine sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Pot Common, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pot Common: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Which fluid, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Give us a postcode starting GU8 6, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short stretch up Thursley Road.
- Draining your tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
The attendants on duty at any Pot Common filling station — the Esso among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. Stored in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits underneath your diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Gatwick yesterday and never switched on remains the straightforward case, as long as nobody turns the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. 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 labouring on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. A vehicle left sitting in Pot Common with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it the most — the injection pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. No harm is done as long as it sits put, mixed into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the following fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Pot Common or out in Tilford, costs more than almost any other slip.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only in your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has stopped around Surrey.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Pot Common: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars rests right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's not the forecourt: a driver buys a container driving home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside St James CofE Aided Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Kingsmead. Else, after dark outside The Golden Fleece, the vehicle gets refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented motors, brand-new cars, company motors, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least known cars get it most. Same mistake, an identical first step — leave it switched off — anywhere you are around Pot Common or the remainder of Surrey.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Pot Common?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any may appear, perhaps midway across Pot Common or coming back from Thursley Road Recreation Ground. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M3, under 10 miles from Pot Common, at the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Chichester, under 25 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Pot Common to the car park by St James. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where your car has ended up, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Pot Common?
The car stays where it is, whether that is a street beside Elstead Youth Centre, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Pot Common, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether your engine has been run, since those replies settle this work.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of your vehicle. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians arrive, if the engine hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the fuel system is bled with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, at Milford (Surrey) or on a drive around Pot Common. It is checked on fresh diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before we leave. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Pot Common and where it is
Pot Common is a suburban area in Surrey, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 53 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Pot Common lies near the villages of Elstead and Tilford Common, and is also close to Charleshill. Pot Common is located 34.1 miles from London and 23.6 miles from Chichester, making it a relatively rural suburb in the South East region.
AdBlue drains across Pot Common and Surrey
Elstead, Charleshill and Tilford Common are among the places around Pot Common that the same vans serve, along with much of Surrey further out, throughout the GU postcode area. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are by a county line, or somewhere awkward to explain.
No moving is needed. In Pot Common, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your vehicle is emptied where it stands, be it in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Pot Common?
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Elstead Village Hall.
Before any figure, never afterwards, every call from Pot Common opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether the engine ran. Their replies shrink the range down to one figure.
The price is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
Pot Common: still beside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Surrey, Pot Common too.