Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Send
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully purged where the car stands in Send. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Send
Do:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting GU23 7, or whatever street is closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you stand.
Never:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Tannery Lane.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the verge.
At a forecourt in Send, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Send Grove 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 pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it till morning around Send makes it worse. In your tank only, waiting costs nothing. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have an issue of thin fuel. No harm is done while it stays unused, blended into the diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Whether the car is in Burntcommon or the heart of Send, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Surrey the car is standing.
Send: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. No one means it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Send CofE Primary School. A driver pours the container in at home, right off Clockbarn Way, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark outside The New Inn, your car is refilled by a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars see it most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet ones, and the other car of a family with one of each fuel types. Anywhere across Surrey, Send as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
Send: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It's been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Send Recreation Ground, or part way across Send, the engine may run rough, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or cut out. Once safe, pull over and turn it off — with no restarting to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M25, under 5 miles from Send, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why a hop across Send to park near Send WW1 Memorial and a drive of under 25 miles for Westminster are such separate jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the engine has been run. Caught early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Send?
A street beside Lancaster Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has stopped in Send, we come to it. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else we ask what got in, roughly the amount, plus if the motor has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where your car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the vehicle is tested. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, the system is primed with new diesel. At that point we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking space at Clandon or a drive in Send. We confirm it runs properly on new diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Send
Send is a village in Surrey, situated on the banks of the River Wey at an elevation of around 30 metres. Send sits in a rural area near the towns of Woking and Guildford, with nearby places including Cartbridge, Send Marsh, and Old Woking. Send has a population of approximately 1162 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Send is located about 22.9 miles from London, making it a commuter village with easy access to the city.
Send and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Send are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Cartbridge, Send Marsh as well as Old Woking — and much of Surrey beyond, across GU postcodes. Ring and check instead of guessing if you are close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
No moving is needed. In Send, a village, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, whether on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Send
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind St. Peter's Church, Old Woking.
What got in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: every Send call opens with precisely those, before any figure, never afterwards. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you hear our price on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Send: still next to your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if it ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Surrey, Send too.