Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Shortlands
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it's pulled through your lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Shortlands. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Shortlands: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BR2 0, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Moving your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short stretch along Durham Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
Moving your car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Shortlands forecourt you're on, the Esso included. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a separate tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Park Langley last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches until it's cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny passages. A motor left sitting around Shortlands with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the BP, and the issue is thinned fuel. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Sundridge or the middle of Shortlands.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Greater London the vehicle is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Shortlands
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is never the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle heading home and tips it in at home.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside Harris Primary Academy Shortlands, because the dash lit up with a warning while the kids were taken in. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, just off Hillside Road, as the day ends. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Shortlands Tavern.
It takes place most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Shortlands or the remainder of Greater London, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Shortlands?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It's been pulled through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each might appear, maybe part way across Shortlands or coming back from Church House Gardens. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M25, under 10 miles from Shortlands, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Shortlands to the car park by St Mary, Shortlands is a very different job from a run towards London, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once the engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it's caught quickly.
Shortlands: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street beside Amphitheatre, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever the vehicle has come to rest around Shortlands, our engineers travel to it. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over: we check before all else, because those decide the work.
Then that tank is drained where your car stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't clear away on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking bay by the nearest station or a driveway around Shortlands, that is where we fire it up and you head off. We check it runs smoothly on new diesel before leaving. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Shortlands
Shortlands is a suburban area in the London Borough of Bromley, situated on the banks of the River Ravensbourne. Shortlands sits at an elevation of around 42 metres, with a mix of residential and commercial properties, predominantly flats. Shortlands is located near the towns of Bromley and Widmore, and is close to Bromley Park. Shortlands has a population of approximately 9190 residents.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Shortlands included
AdBlue jobs around Shortlands are passed to vans that cover the places near it — Bromley, Bromley Park plus Widmore — and much of Greater London beyond, throughout BR postcodes. Near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Wherever the car stands — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers empty it there, with no need to take it to us; that suits Shortlands, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Shortlands: the cost of fixing it
Not one single price could be fair, since every job differs. What changes the price is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Bromley War Memorial.
For that reason, every call from Shortlands begins by asking the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, if it ran — before any figure. When those are answered, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
In Shortlands and still beside your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Greater London, Shortlands included.