Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Giles
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only starts once the pump starts drawing it. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in St Giles. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around St Giles
Do these:
- Take your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so do not throw it out.
- Call right where you are. Quote a WC2H 9 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Short's Gardens.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
Rolling the car off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever St Giles forecourt you're on, the Texaco or any other. At home, the car remains exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — entirely unlike fuel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, and that is why a vehicle filled in Chinatown last night and never switched on remains the simple case, as long as nobody touches the key.
After it's pulled in, the harm takes two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filters and narrow channels; and, because it attacks some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A car left standing around St Giles with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. Blended through your diesel and sitting unused, it is no threat for now; running your engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot simply be run through, because it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the next fill will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of St Giles or out in Soho, costs more than almost any other error.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits just inside that tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever the vehicle has come to rest around Greater London.
St Giles: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two can look identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it is not the forecourt: a driver picks up a container heading home and tips it in at home.
Usually, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside St Josephs Catholic Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the children were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Endell Street. One more version: darkness, the car park by The Cross Keys, and someone using that flap the first time.
It takes place most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical slip, an identical first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around St Giles or the rest of Greater London.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in St Giles?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Via your filter, through the pipework, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may show up, perhaps part way across St Giles or returning from Phoenix Garden. When safe, pull over then switch everything off — without restarting to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M1, under 10 miles from St Giles, by the first junction and park safely, not driving on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so driving for Westminster, under 3 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing St Giles to the car park by Hope Community Church. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once the motor has been run. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in St Giles
A street beside The Neal's Yard Water Clock, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the vehicle has stopped in St Giles, we travel to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether the motor has run, because those replies decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one after your tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since what remains will not flush away unaided. A test of your car follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and your filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime your system on clean diesel. Whether it's a parking space by Tottenham Court Road or a driveway around St Giles, that is where our engineers fire it up and you drive off. Our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before leaving. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About St Giles
St Giles is a densely populated suburban area in central London, situated near the Strand and Covent Garden. St Giles sits at a relatively low elevation of 31 metres, close to the heart of the city. St Giles is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing, with a mix of old and new buildings, and is home to a diverse population of around 10,026 residents. St Giles is also nearby to other notable areas such as Aldwych and Westminster, making it a vibrant and connected community.
St Giles and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the WC2H postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in St Giles reach most of Greater London too, Strand, Covent Garden and Aldwych among them. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
No moving is needed. In St Giles, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained where it stands, whether on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
St Giles: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, and so no fixed quote would be fair. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Seven Dials Market.
Which fluid went in, how much, and if the engine ran: each St Giles call begins with precisely those, ahead of any quote, not afterwards. When they are known, a range turns into a single fixed figure.
The price is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Beside your car in St Giles, right now?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran is everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Greater London, St Giles included.