AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Reigate? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly purged where your car sits around Reigate. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Reigate: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take the keys out.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so don't throw it away.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting RH2 9, or just the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch down High Street.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the verge.
Moving your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Reigate forecourt you are on, the Esso included. On that drive, your car remains just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what the motor emits. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Skimmington last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of harm come from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. On top of that, it attacks some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it's cleared out. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle sitting in Reigate. Just inside that tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it offers no protection to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Texaco, and this problem is thinned fuel. Mixed into the diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat at that stage; using the motor is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It doesn't 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 the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Reigate Heath or the middle of Reigate.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever around Surrey your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Reigate: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical story.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Reigate Priory Community Junior School. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to Bell Street. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Market Stores.
It takes place most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere around Surrey, Reigate as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Reigate: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
You may notice your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Priory Park or halfway across Reigate. When safe, stop and turn it off — without turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M25, under 3 miles from Reigate, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so heading towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Reigate to the car park by Old Town Hall. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the engine has been started. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Reigate: what it takes
A street beside Brewery Yard Murals, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Reigate, we travel to it. Which fluid was put in, about how much, plus if the motor has turned over: our technicians ask before all else, since those shape the job.
Then the tank is drained where the car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not wash away by itself. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the final step. You drive off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Reigate or in a bay at the nearest station. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs properly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Reigate itself
Reigate is a town in Surrey, situated on the banks of the River Mole, with a mix of old and new buildings. Reigate sits at an elevation of 86 metres, close to the North Downs, and is surrounded by areas such as South Park, Wray Common, and Mead Vale. Reigate has a population of around 16814 people, predominantly living in detached houses, and is located approximately 18.9 miles south of central London.
AdBlue drains across Reigate and Surrey
AdBlue jobs in Reigate go to vans that serve the towns around it — South Park, Wray Common as well as Mead Vale — and much of Surrey further out, across RH postcodes. Near a boundary, or somewhere tricky to explain? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
Wherever your car sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Reigate, a riverside town, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Reigate?
Because each callouts differ, a single figure wouldn't be honest. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the car, since an open drive is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Reigate Tunnel Road Caves.
Ahead of a quote, not after, each call from Reigate begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, and if the engine ran. With them, the range narrows to a single fixed number.
Before anyone heads out, you are told the price on the phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Reigate and still alongside the car?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Reigate or anywhere in Surrey.