AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rayleigh? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens until the engine sucks it through. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits around Rayleigh. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Rayleigh: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Say a SS6 7 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way down High Street.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road isn't one to try.
The staff on duty at any Rayleigh forecourt — the Shell among them — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On the drive, the car stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: one that had AdBlue in New Thundersley overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the base of your tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through once the engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. 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, so it keeps working on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting till morning in Rayleigh makes it worse. In your tank only, waiting does nothing. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, so the water content damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
A fault of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the Sainsbury's. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's in your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Hadleigh or the middle of Rayleigh.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever across Essex the vehicle has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Rayleigh
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is easy in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Rayleigh Primary School the top-up is rushed. Someone tips the container in outside their house, right off Websters Way, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Crown.
Hired motors, brand-new motors, fleet motors, or the second car in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. An identical slip, an identical first step — keep it off — wherever you happen to be around Rayleigh or the remainder of Essex.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Rayleigh?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Expect rough running, smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Sensory Garden, perhaps, or midway across Rayleigh. Once you safely can, stop then switch everything off — with no turning it on again to see. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Rayleigh sits under 15 miles from the M25; if you were on it, leave by the first junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Distance matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so heading towards Southend-on-Sea, under 10 miles away, gives a much larger job than crossing Rayleigh to the car park by The Martyrs' Memorial. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been started. Lasting damage is very unusual when it's noticed early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Rayleigh: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped around Rayleigh — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Jewish Memorial — our van comes to your car. Which fluid went in, roughly the quantity, plus whether your motor has been run: we check before all else, since those shape the job.
Next, draining the tank right there takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not wash away by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, the system is primed with clean diesel. You drive off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway around Rayleigh or in a space outside the nearest station. Our engineers make sure it runs properly on new diesel before leaving. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Rayleigh
Rayleigh is a town in Essex, situated approximately 32 miles east of London and 5.5 miles northwest of Southend-on-Sea. Rayleigh sits in a relatively low-lying area, with an average elevation of around 66 metres, and is surrounded by nearby places such as Daws Heath and Thundersley. Rayleigh has a population of around 24,583 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Rayleigh remains a significant urban centre in the region, with a mix of residential and commercial areas.
AdBlue drains across Essex, Rayleigh included
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Rayleigh also cover the locations round it, Daws Heath, The Birches and Thundersley among them, and most of Essex beyond, across the SS postcode area. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
A mobile service fits Rayleigh, a town: there's no need to bring your car to us, since our technicians empty it there, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Rayleigh?
Since each callouts differ, a single figure would not be fair. Three things change the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Rayleigh Lanes.
Which fluid went in, how much, plus if the engine ran: each Rayleigh enquiry opens with exactly that, ahead of any figure, not after. Given those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed number.
Before a van heads out, you hear the price on the phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Next to your car around Rayleigh, right now?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Rayleigh or anywhere within Essex, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.