AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shooters Hill? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and keep your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Shooters Hill. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Shooters Hill, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SE18 4, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Red Lion Lane.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it on your own.
The attendants working at any Shooters Hill forecourt — the Shell included — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you're on your own drive, leave it just where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Woolwich overnight and left unstarted counts as the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your engine turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
Once it is pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. By daybreak, a car sitting around Shooters Hill with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it's only in the tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the JET, and the issue is diluted fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside the tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the following fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Shooters Hill or out in Kidbrooke, costs more than nearly any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere across Greater London the vehicle sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Shooters Hill
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. It usually happens at home, from a bottle bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Christ Church Church of England Primary School, Shooters Hill, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. Near Constitution Rise, a driver tips a container in on that drive after work. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Red Lion, the car gets topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
The least known vehicles get it most — rentals, brand-new cars, company ones, and the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuels. Wherever you're around Shooters Hill or the rest of Greater London, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Shooters Hill: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through your filter and lines.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Castlewood or halfway across Shooters Hill. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave it off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M11, under 10 miles from Shooters Hill, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Shooters Hill to the car park by Christ Church is a very different job from a run towards London, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to flush once the engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is noticed soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Shooters Hill?
A street beside Severndroog Castle, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Shooters Hill, our technicians come to it. What got in, about how much, and if the engine has been run: we check first, because those decide the work.
On the spot, your tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. Your system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, at Falconwood or on a drive in Shooters Hill. Our engineers confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we go. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Shooters Hill
Shooters Hill is a suburban area in south-east London, situated near the River Thames and close to the boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley. Shooters Hill sits at an elevation of 87 metres, offering views of the surrounding area, and is located near the neighbourhoods of Plumstead, Well Hall, and Charlton. Shooters Hill is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects the typical architectural style of many London suburbs. Shooters Hill is also relatively close to central London, being approximately 8.5 miles from the city centre.
Shooters Hill and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Shooters Hill are passed to vans that cover the places around it — Plumstead, Well Hall plus Charlton — and much of Greater London further out, across SE postcodes. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
A van that comes to you suits Shooters Hill, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your car to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Shooters Hill
There is no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put 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 Shrewsbury Barrow.
That's why every call from Shooters Hill starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it has run. Their answers shrink a range down to one figure.
Before anyone heads out, you are told our quote by phone. Then 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.
Beside the vehicle in Shooters Hill, still?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Shooters Hill or anywhere in Greater London, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.