AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in South Park? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm starts once it is pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. In South Park, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, South Park: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and about what volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting RH2 8, or simply the name of a street close by, so call from the car.
Not to do:
- Moving your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Church Road.
- Draining the tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
Ask the attendants to help you move your car off the pumps if you're at a forecourt in South Park, whether it is the Texaco or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Mead Vale last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and tiny channels; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Lines carrying AdBlue mean damage by morning for a vehicle parked around South Park. Only in the tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate kind of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that's the whole issue. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Skimmington or the middle of South Park.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Surrey your car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in South Park: how it ends up there
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Sandcross Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Crescent Road. Or someone new to that flap refills the car in dim light, stopped in the car park by The Venture Inn.
Hired cars, new vehicles, company vehicles, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it the most. Wherever around Surrey, South Park included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around South Park?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed through your filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may appear, maybe part way across South Park or returning from Priory Park. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M25, under 3 miles from South Park, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across South Park to the car park by South Park War Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Lasting damage is very unusual when it is caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in South Park?
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in South Park: a side street close to St Luke's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What got in, about the quantity, plus if the engine has turned over: our technicians check before all else, since those decide the job.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't wash out on its own. After that, the filter: cleaned, or replaced if it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of the car. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a busy filling station is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around South Park or in a bay by Reigate. Before we leave, our engineers make sure it's running properly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About South Park, for a moment
South Park is a suburban area in Surrey, situated near the riverside and surrounded by nearby places such as Woodhatch and Reigate. South Park sits at an elevation of 93 metres, approximately 19.6 miles from London, and is characterized by its predominant semi-detached housing. South Park is a residential community with a population of around 3596 people, located near the town of Reigate and the neighbourhood of Doversgreen.
AdBlue drains around South Park and across Surrey
Throughout the RH postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in South Park reach much of Surrey too, Woodhatch, Reigate and Doversgreen among them. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits South Park, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the car to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in South Park?
Because each jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be fair. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Vogan Memorial.
Ahead of any quote, never afterwards, every call from South Park begins with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. With them, the range shrinks to a single fixed number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. While our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
In South Park and still alongside your car?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in South Park or wherever in Surrey.