AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Speldhurst? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and your ignition as well. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully cleaned where the vehicle sits in Speldhurst. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Speldhurst
Do these:
- Remove your keys, and that prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, so do not bin it away.
- Ring just where you are. Say a TN3 0 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: the motor remains off.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- Pouring in more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch up Northfields.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the verge.
On a forecourt around Speldhurst, whether it is the Bidborough Service Station or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Broomhill Bank 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.
It does two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps working on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. A car left sitting around Speldhurst with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. And there's the water: it offers no protection to the components that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. Mixed into your diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; using the motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — 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 heart of Speldhurst or out in Lower Green, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Kent your car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Speldhurst?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under one flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Mostly it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Speldhurst Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Barden Road. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside George and Dragon, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented cars, brand-new cars, fleet vehicles, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known cars see it the most. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Speldhurst or the rest of Kent you are.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Speldhurst?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been drawn through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on your dash, or a stall — returning from Speldhurst Recreation Ground, perhaps, or part way across Speldhurst. When safe, stop then turn it off — with no turning it on again to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Speldhurst lies under 10 miles from the M25; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely rather than carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving towards Brighton and Hove, under 50 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Speldhurst to the car park by Speldhurst Village Hall. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has been started, and we do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it's caught early.
Speldhurst: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The car remains put, whether that is a street near St Mary's Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Speldhurst, and the van comes to it. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has been run: our engineers ask first, because those shape the work.
Then that tank is emptied where your car waits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since what remains will not wash away by itself. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we get there, provided the engine has not run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the system is bled with fresh diesel. After that we fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Tunbridge Wells or a drive in Speldhurst. Before we go, we check it's running correctly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About Speldhurst
Speldhurst is a village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 96 metres, and is located approximately 28.7 miles from London. Speldhurst has a population of around 1222 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Speldhurst is near several other small settlements, including Stockland Green, Bullingstone, and Poundsbridge. Speldhurst is also relatively close to the city of Brighton and Hove, which is 27.7 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Speldhurst and Kent
AdBlue jobs in Speldhurst are passed to teams that cover the places near it — Stockland Green, Bullingstone as well as Poundsbridge — and much of Kent further out, throughout TN postcodes. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Speldhurst is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Speldhurst: the cost of fixing it
No flat figure could be fair, because each job is different. Whether the 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 vehicle, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight gap behind Speldhurst War Memorial.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Speldhurst enquiry opens with exactly those, before a quote, never after. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone heads out, you hear our price by phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. As our engineer is travelling, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still alongside the car in Speldhurst?
Then, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Speldhurst or anywhere around Kent.