AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in St Stephens? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; damage just starts once the pump begins pulling it. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits in St Stephens. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in St Stephens: the first few minutes
To do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Which product, and about how much quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians can see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CT2 7, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Moving your car just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Many diesels run their pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Even a short distance along St. Stephen's Court is too far to drive it.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
Moving your car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever St Stephens forecourt you are on, the Asda included. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Canterbury last night and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of your tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through if your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and carries on till it is flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue spell harm by morning for a car parked in St Stephens. Just inside that tank, it stays stable. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and left in your tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the next fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of St Stephens or out in St Martins, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Kent your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around St Stephens
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside St Stephen's Infant School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Someone tips the container in outside their house, just off Wacher Close, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills your car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside Ye Olde Beverlie.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a fleet vehicle, or the other car of a home with one of each fuels — the cars people use the least. An identical mistake, same first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around St Stephens or the remainder of Kent.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in St Stephens?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any may show up, perhaps midway across St Stephens or returning from Beverley Meadow. Once you safely can, pull over then switch it off — without turning it on again to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M2, under 10 miles from St Stephens, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across St Stephens to the car park by Milleneum Monument is a very different job from a run towards Canterbury, under a mile away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Lasting damage is very rare when it is caught quickly.
St Stephens: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a street beside St Stephen's Church Hall, a drive, a layby or a forecourt in St Stephens, and our van comes to it. Three replies shape the job, so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid was put in, roughly what quantity, plus whether the engine has run.
Then your tank is drained where your car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned right through because residue won't flush out unaided. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
The final step is to prime your system on clean diesel. At that point we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay by Canterbury West or a driveway in St Stephens. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs correctly on new diesel. No garage is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers ask for.
About St Stephens
St Stephens is a suburban area located on the River Stour in Kent, with a mix of residential and commercial properties. St Stephens sits at a low elevation of around 13 metres, close to the city centre of Canterbury. St Stephens is characterised by its predominant housing type, which is mainly flat developments. St Stephens is situated near other local areas, including Hales Place and Northgate.
AdBlue drains around St Stephens and across Kent
Hales Place, Northgate and St Dunstans are among the towns near St Stephens that the same teams reach, along with much of Kent further out, throughout the CT postcode area. Phone and check instead of guessing when you are close to a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you suits St Stephens, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring the car to us, because our engineers empty it there, in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
St Stephens: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. What moves the price is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St Stephen's Church.
That's why each call from St Stephens starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. Once those are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
The price is given on the call, before anyone leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside the car around St Stephens?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Kent, St Stephens too.