AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in St Johns? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Being water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; damage only starts once the pump starts drawing it. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle stands around St Johns. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around St Johns
To do:
- Remove your keys, and that stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so don't bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting TN13 3, or whichever street is closest, and the van finds you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: your motor remains off.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance along Bradbourne Road.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it yourself.
Rolling the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever St Johns forecourt you are on, the BP or any other. At your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. From a dedicated reservoir it is fed directly to your exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the very place the intake draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Greatness last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it reaches until it is cleared from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car sitting in St Johns. Just inside your tank, it stays stable. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, and so the water part harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. Blended into the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; running the motor is the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether the car is in Kippington or the heart of St Johns, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If the 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 across Kent the vehicle is sitting.
St Johns: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Sevenoaks Primary School. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Bradbourne Park Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The Rifleman, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet car, or the spare motor in a family with both fuel types — the cars drivers use the least. An identical slip, an identical first step — keep it switched off — wherever you are around St Johns or the remainder of Kent.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around St Johns?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and pipework.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each may show up, maybe part way across St Johns or coming back from Volunteer Island. No starting it again to test: pull over when safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M26, under 3 miles from St Johns, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing St Johns to park near Sevenoaks Muslim Centre and a drive of under 25 miles for London are such distinct jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it is spotted early.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around St Johns
A road beside St Johns United Reformed Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has stopped around St Johns, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, because those answers determine this work.
Next, emptying that tank right there removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue together. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs when your engine hasn't run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. You head off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around St Johns or in a bay by Bat & Ball. It is checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs properly before we leave. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. At the end, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About St Johns, briefly
St Johns is a suburban area in Kent, situated lakeside with an elevation of 91 metres, and is located near the towns of Riverhead and Sevenoaks. St Johns has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most predominant, and the area is approximately 20 miles from central London. St Johns is close to the nearby suburban area of Longford and is part of the wider commuter belt around London.
AdBlue drains across Kent, St Johns included
Riverhead, Longford and Sevenoaks are among the towns around St Johns that the same vans reach, along with much of Kent further out, over the TN postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service suits St Johns, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it on the spot, in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around St Johns
Every job is different, 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 amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind St John the Baptist.
That is why every call from St Johns starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Given those replies, the range shrinks to a single firm number.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy while we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Alongside the vehicle in St Johns, still?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across St Johns or anywhere within Kent, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.