AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Staples Corner? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your motor off and keep your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The harm begins once it is sucked through your pump — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Staples Corner, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Staples Corner: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting NW2 1, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- No starting the engine — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up Tilling Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the verge.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your car away from the island if you're on a forecourt in Staples Corner, whether it is the Esso or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave the car just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. From a dedicated tank it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Dollis Hill last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. 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, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning in Staples Corner leaves things worse. In your tank alone, waiting does nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the main issue. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside the tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Whether your vehicle sits in Hendon or the centre of Staples Corner, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just in your tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere your car has come to rest across Greater London.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Staples Corner
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Parkfield Primary School. Close to M1, a driver tips a container in on the drive in the evening. Else, in dim light by Whelan's, your vehicle is refilled by a driver opening that flap the first time.
Hired motors, new motors, fleet vehicles, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least known vehicles get it the most. Wherever you are in Staples Corner or the rest of Greater London, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Staples Corner?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through your filter and lines.
Perhaps returning from Claremont Park, or midway across Staples Corner, the engine may go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. No restarting to test: stop once it is safe, then switch everything off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M1, under a mile from Staples Corner, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
A quick hop across Staples Corner to the car park by Jesus House for All The Nations is one thing; heading towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, is another, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage if it is caught early.
Staples Corner: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Staples Corner: a side street close to Here we come, here we rise, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and if the engine has run, since those replies determine this work.
Next, draining that tank right there removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the last step. Starting the engine comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, outside Brent Cross West or on a drive around Staples Corner. It is checked on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before we go. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Staples Corner
Staples Corner is a suburban area in northwest London, situated near the Welsh Harp lake and the A406 North Circular Road. Staples Corner has a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities, with nearby Brent Cross and West Hendon providing additional shopping and leisure options. Staples Corner is located about 6 miles from central London, making it a relatively accessible residential area.
AdBlue drains across Staples Corner and Greater London
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Staples Corner also cover the places around it, Welsh Harp, Brent Cross and West Hendon among them, and most of Greater London beyond, across the NW postcode area. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you are by a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Staples Corner is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Staples Corner?
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind The 108.
Ahead of a figure, not afterwards, each enquiry from Staples Corner begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and if it ran. Those replies narrow the range down to a single number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle in Staples Corner, still?
Not touching your car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran are all we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Greater London, Staples Corner included.