Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Johns
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it won't ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts once the pump begins drawing it. In St Johns, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around St Johns
To do:
- Pocket your keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly how much quantity? Save the bottle or the receipt, and we will know.
- Call just where you are. Quote a GU21 7 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way down Barricane is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle off the island if you are at a forecourt in St Johns, whether it's the BP or somewhere else. On your own drive, don't touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not combine. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Horsell yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though once your engine turns, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filters and tiny passages; meanwhile, because it attacks some metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. A motor left sitting in St Johns with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Morrisons. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the next fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of St Johns or out in Littlewick, costs more than almost any other slip.
As with petrol, there's good news. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Surrey the vehicle is standing.
St Johns: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Goldsworth Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off St John's Hill Road. Another version: darkness, a pub car park outside The Rowbarge, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a fleet car, or the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers use least. Anywhere across Surrey, St Johns included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in St Johns?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each may appear, perhaps part way across St Johns or returning from St John's Lye West. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M3, under 5 miles from St Johns, at the first junction and park safely, not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across St Johns to the car park by St John's Church is a very different job from a run towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the vehicle came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been running. When it's noticed quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around St Johns: what it takes
A street by St Andrews, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere the vehicle has stopped in St Johns, our engineers travel to it. The job depends on three replies, which our technicians ask for before all else — what got in, the quantity, and whether your motor has run.
Next, draining the tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than with petrol. Testing your vehicle follows at the end, once clean diesel is added and your filter is flushed or, if needed, swapped. Engine not run? In that case expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the last step. Then our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Woking or a driveway around St Johns. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About St Johns, briefly
St Johns is a suburban area in Surrey, situated lakeside with an elevation of 58 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. St Johns is located near several other suburban areas, including Hook Heath and Fishers Hill, and is about 24 miles from London. St Johns has a population of around 4478 residents and is close to Horsell Birch. St Johns benefits from its proximity to Westminster, which is approximately 23.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, St Johns included
Over the GU postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around St Johns serve most of Surrey as well, Hook Heath, Fishers Hill and Horsell Birch among them. Assuming won't help close to a border or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
No moving is needed. In St Johns, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around St Johns?
Since the jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be fair. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open drive is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind Woking Crematorium.
That is why every call from St Johns starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. Those answers narrow a range down to a single figure.
You hear that quote by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
St Johns: still beside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across St Johns or wherever within Surrey.