Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ringlestone
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your motor off and leave the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully cleaned where your car stands in Ringlestone. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Ringlestone: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, pull the keys away.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting ME14 2, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the car: your engine stays off.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant the ignition comes on, so keep it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it is wasted.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Edna Road.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
The staff working at any Ringlestone forecourt — the Esso among them — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. On the drive, your car remains just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It does not blend. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the intake draws from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is how a car filled in Harbourland yesterday and never started stays the simple case, as long as no one turns the key.
Once it is pulled in, the harm comes in two forms. 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 labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car parked in Ringlestone. Only in the tank, it stays stable. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that is the whole fault. No damage comes while it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's 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 Maidstone or the middle of Ringlestone.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, wherever your vehicle has come to rest around Kent.
Ringlestone: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — can appear the same. No one means it; many designs invite it. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver buys a bottle heading home and tips it in at home.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside North Borough Junior School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Sheridan Close. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Flower Pot, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Rented cars, brand-new cars, fleet motors, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it the most. Same mistake, same first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around Ringlestone or the rest of Kent.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ringlestone?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Via your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it has gone.
Maybe coming back from Ringlestone Park, or part way across Ringlestone, the motor may go rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M20, under a mile from Ringlestone, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Distance matters: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, so heading for Southend-on-Sea, under 25 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Ringlestone to the car park by Allington Castle. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to flush once your engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it is caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Ringlestone?
A street beside DNA Helix, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the car has stopped in Ringlestone, we come to it. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers ask for first — which fluid went in, the amount, and if the motor has turned over.
Next, emptying the tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. A full flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, because residue will not wash out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Maidstone East or on a driveway around Ringlestone. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the entire job done then and there. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Ringlestone, for a moment
Ringlestone is a suburban area in Kent, situated near the River Medway at an elevation of around 28 metres. Ringlestone lies within commuting distance of London, approximately 31.6 miles away, and is also close to the nearby city of Southend-on-Sea. Ringlestone is characterised by its terraced housing and is surrounded by other local places such as Sandling and Allington. Ringlestone has a population of around 3635 people.
Ringlestone and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Ringlestone also cover the locations around it, Sandling, Allington and Penenden Heath among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the ME postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
Ringlestone is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Ringlestone: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so no single quote is honest. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind River Stage.
With that reason, every enquiry from Ringlestone opens with the same trio — which fluid got in, how much, whether it ran — ahead of a quote. When those are answered, a range turns into one firm number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Ringlestone and still beside the car?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best move you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether it ran is all we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Kent, Ringlestone included.