Rickling Green: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep your ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits in Rickling Green. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Rickling Green, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers will see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting CB11 3, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts your pump running on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Rickling Green Road.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it on your own.
Rolling your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Rickling Green forecourt you are on, the Gulf included. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It does not blend. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It drops, because it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Little Henham last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Once it's pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting in Rickling Green with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's just in your tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the JET and you have a fault of thin fuel. Mixed into the diesel and left still, it is harmless for now; running your engine is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't 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 Ugley Green or the middle of Rickling Green.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Essex your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Rickling Green?
Many vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two can look the same. Nobody intends it. A bottle bought while heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. The top-up is hurried outside Rickling Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped off. A driver tips the bottle in at home, right off Bluebell Drive, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light outside Cricketers Arms, your car is topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — rentals, new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever you are around Rickling Green or the remainder of Essex, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rickling Green?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been sucked through your filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from The Green or halfway across Rickling Green. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M11, under a mile from Rickling Green, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
A quick hop across Rickling Green to the car park by Quendon & Rickling is one matter; heading for Cambridge, under 25 miles away, is another, because each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the flushing where your car has stopped, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. Long-term damage is very rare when it's noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Rickling Green?
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Rickling Green: a side street near Quendon Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has been run, because those replies settle the work.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. A test of the car follows last, after fresh diesel goes in and your filter is cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the engine has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. Starting the car comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, at Elsenham or on a drive in Rickling Green. Before we leave, our technicians check it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Rickling Green, briefly
Rickling Green is a small village in Essex, situated in a rural area with a mix of arable land and woodland, and is characterized by its detached housing stock. Rickling Green has a population of around 694 people and is located approximately 95 metres above sea level. Rickling Green is close to the villages of Quendon and Ugley, and is also near the village of Rickling, with the city of Cambridge being the nearest major urban centre. Rickling Green is positioned inland, about 33.4 miles from London.
Rickling Green and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Quendon, Ugley and Rickling are among the places around Rickling Green that the same teams reach, together with much of Essex beyond, throughout the CB postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Wherever the vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers empty it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Rickling Green, a rural village, well.
Rickling Green: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be honest. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Quendon.
Before any quote, not after, each call from Rickling Green opens with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. Their answers shrink the range right down to one number.
You hear that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
In Rickling Green and still alongside the car?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Rickling Green or wherever in Essex, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.