AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Strawberry Hill? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly rinsed where your car sits around Strawberry Hill. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Strawberry Hill, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting TW1 4, or whatever street is closest, and the van finds you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: the motor remains off.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel won't thin it.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Chillingworth Gardens.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
The staff on duty at any Strawberry Hill filling station — the Esso included — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. At home, the vehicle stays exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its supply from. 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 Twickenham last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, attacking whatever it reaches until it's removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Strawberry Hill with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it's only in that tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second form of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that is the main fault. No harm is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — 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 Strawberry Hill or out in Cole Park, does more harm than nearly any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever across Greater London the vehicle has stopped.
Strawberry Hill: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; many layouts invite it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Archdeacon Cambridge's Church of England Primary School. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Radnor Road. Another pattern: dim light, a pub car park outside Alexander Pope Hotel, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a company vehicle, or the other motor of a family with both fuels — the cars people use least. Keep it off: that's the first response to the same slip, wherever around Strawberry Hill or the rest of Greater London you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Strawberry Hill, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It has been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Maybe returning from Radnor Gardens, or part way across Strawberry Hill, the motor might go rough, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or stall. When you safely can, pull over then turn everything off — without restarting to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M4, under 5 miles from Strawberry Hill, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Strawberry Hill to park beside Library and a drive of under 15 miles for Westminster are very different jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the engine has been running. When it is spotted early, lasting damage is very unusual.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Strawberry Hill: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped around Strawberry Hill — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road by Sport Centre, Clinic and R Block Rooms — our van comes to your car. Three replies shape the job, and so before anything else we ask what got in, roughly the amount, plus whether the engine has run.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. At that point our technicians fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay at the nearest station or a driveway around Strawberry Hill. Before leaving, our technicians confirm it is running properly with clean diesel in. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Strawberry Hill itself
Strawberry Hill is a suburban area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, situated near the River Thames and overlooking the river at a low elevation of around 12 metres. Strawberry Hill is characterised by its semi-detached housing stock and lakeside setting, with nearby places including Fulwell and Eel Pie Island. Strawberry Hill is located approximately 10 miles from central London, with Westminster about 10 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Strawberry Hill and Greater London
AdBlue jobs in Strawberry Hill are passed to teams that cover the towns around it — Fulwell, Eel Pie Island as well as Teddington — and much of Greater London further out, throughout TW postcodes. Assuming doesn't help by a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
No moving is needed. In Strawberry Hill, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is emptied on the spot, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
Strawberry Hill: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the callouts vary, a flat price wouldn't be fair. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Tennis Centre.
Ahead of any quote, not after, each call from Strawberry Hill opens with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and if the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before a van heads out, you hear the quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. While the van is travelling, check your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Next to the vehicle around Strawberry Hill, right now?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to not touch it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Strawberry Hill or anywhere within Greater London, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.