AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sawbridgeworth? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes once the pump begins drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Sawbridgeworth, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Sawbridgeworth: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Save the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CM21 9, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way down Church Street.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
The staff working at any Sawbridgeworth forecourt — the Shell included — will usually lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected 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 made to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Sheering last night and has not turned since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through if the engine runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it is flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight in Sawbridgeworth makes it worse. Inside your tank only, waiting costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It cannot simply be run through, because it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Gaston Green or the middle of Sawbridgeworth.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Hertfordshire your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Sawbridgeworth
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two can look identical. Nobody means it. A container picked up while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Fawbert and Barnard Infants' School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. A driver tips the container in at home, right off The Square, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Old Bell.
Hired vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it the most. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever in Sawbridgeworth or the remainder of Hertfordshire you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sawbridgeworth?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
Maybe coming back from Fair Green, or midway across Sawbridgeworth, your engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. No restarting to test: stop when safe, then switch everything off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M11, under 3 miles from Sawbridgeworth, by the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across Sawbridgeworth to park near Great St Mary's and a drive of under 15 miles for Chelmsford are very separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to rinse out once the engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has ended up. When it's noticed soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Sawbridgeworth
Anywhere it has stopped in Sawbridgeworth — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street beside Sawbridgeworth Library — our van comes to your vehicle. Three answers decide the job, so first our engineers ask what went in, about the amount, and whether the engine has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. A test of your car follows at the end, after clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter is cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the last step. Whether it's a parking bay outside the nearest station or a drive around Sawbridgeworth, that is where we start the engine and you set off. Our technicians check it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we go. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Sawbridgeworth itself
Sawbridgeworth is a town in eastern Hertfordshire, situated on the River Stort at an elevation of around 69 metres. Sawbridgeworth lies approximately 24 miles north-east of London and is close to the Essex border, near the towns of Chelmsford and Bishop's Stortford. Sawbridgeworth has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent, and its population is around 9770 people. Sawbridgeworth is surrounded by smaller communities, including Lower Sheering, High Wych, and Campions.
AdBlue drains across Sawbridgeworth and Hertfordshire
AdBlue call-outs in Sawbridgeworth are passed to vans that serve the towns near it — Lower Sheering, High Wych plus Campions — and most of Hertfordshire beyond, across CM postcodes. Guessing won't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
No towing is needed. In Sawbridgeworth, a riverside town, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained where it stands, whether in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Sawbridgeworth: the cost of fixing it
Because each jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Sawbridgeworth Memorial Hall.
For that in mind, each enquiry from Sawbridgeworth opens by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, how much, whether the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Given those replies, the range shrinks to a single firm figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Next to the vehicle around Sawbridgeworth, right now?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Sawbridgeworth or wherever in Hertfordshire.