AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Somers Town? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Somers Town, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Somers Town, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
To do:
- Pull the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting NW1 2, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Many diesels power their pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, so it's pointless.
- Even a short stretch down Drummond Street is too far to drive the car.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the verge.
The staff working at any Somers Town filling station — the Texaco among them — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On that drive, the vehicle remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A car filled on a drive in Bloomsbury yesterday evening and left unstarted is the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. 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 working on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a vehicle sitting in Somers Town. Only inside the tank, it stays stable. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Esso. Blended into your diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; running the motor is the damage.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Whether your vehicle sits in Camden Town or the centre of Somers Town, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Greater London the vehicle is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Somers Town: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts invite it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Netley Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Euston Street. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside Exmouth Arms.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a fleet vehicle, or the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuels — the cars people use the least. Same slip, same first step — keep it off — anywhere you happen to be in Somers Town or the remainder of Greater London.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Somers Town?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It's been pulled through your filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may notice your motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Friends House Garden or halfway across Somers Town. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M1, under 10 miles from Somers Town, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Somers Town to park near Captain Matthew Flinders and a drive of under 3 miles for Westminster are such separate jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the motor has been started. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Somers Town
A road beside Erwin Piscator sculpture, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has stopped around Somers Town, our technicians come to it. The job depends on three answers, which our technicians ask for first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if your engine has run.
Then that tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since residue will not wash out by itself. A test of the car comes last, once clean diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, if needed, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, if the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the final step. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Somers Town or in a space at London Euston. The check before we leave is that it runs properly on new diesel. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to go to a workshop. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Somers Town itself
Somers Town is a suburban area in north London, situated near the Regent's Canal and close to the city centre. Somers Town sits at a relatively low elevation of 28 metres, with many of its residents living in flats. Somers Town is bordered by several notable areas, including Regents Park, Fitzrovia, and St Pancras, and is within walking distance of Westminster. Somers Town has a population of approximately 19,230 people.
AdBlue drains across Somers Town and Greater London
Over the NW postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs around Somers Town serve most of Greater London too, Regents Park, Fitzrovia and St Pancras among them. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
Somers Town is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Somers Town: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No flat figure could be fair, since every job differs. What moves the cost is, first, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then 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 London and North Western Railway War Memorial.
For that reason, every enquiry from Somers Town opens with the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether it ran — before any quote. Once they are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Our price is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Somers Town: still beside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Somers Town or anywhere across Greater London.