Subrosa: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your engine off and leave the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage just comes once your pump begins drawing it. Caught before your motor has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Subrosa. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Subrosa: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops anyone switching the power on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting RH1 3, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll the car: your engine stays off.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way along Subrosa Drive.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
Get the attendants to help you move the vehicle away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Subrosa, whether it's the Esso or elsewhere. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the intake takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Gatton last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. 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 gets to for as long as it remains there. A motor left standing around Subrosa with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a problem of thin fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and left in your tank, it causes none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. Whether your car is in Merstham or the centre of Subrosa, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Surrey your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Subrosa?
Many motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. Nobody means it. Usually it's not the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. The top-up is rushed outside Lime Tree Primary School and Nursery, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken off. Near Battlebridge Lane, a driver tips a container in on that drive in the evening. Another pattern: darkness, the car park by The Jolly Brickmakers, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars get it most — hire cars, new ones, fleet cars, and the other car in a family with both fuels. Anywhere across Surrey, Subrosa included, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Subrosa?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each may show up, perhaps midway across Subrosa or returning from 5th Reigate Scout Group. No starting it again to test: stop when safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Subrosa lies under a mile from the M25; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely instead of carrying on.
A quick hop across Subrosa to the car park by All Saints' is one matter; heading for Westminster, under 25 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's caught quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Subrosa
Wherever it has stopped around Subrosa — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside Albury Manor — our van comes to the car. The work depends on three answers, and we ask for first — which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Then the tank is emptied where the car sits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than with petrol. After that, your filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of your vehicle. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that's the final step. Whether it is a parking bay at Merstham or a driveway in Subrosa, that is where our technicians start the engine and you drive off. Our technicians make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel before we leave. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Subrosa and where it is
Subrosa is a suburban area in Surrey, situated approximately 17.5 miles from London and near the cities of Westminster and other local areas like Holmethorpe and South Merstham. Subrosa sits at an elevation of around 85 metres, characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Subrosa is home to a population of around 5290 people, living in a relatively quiet inland setting.
Subrosa and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
Holmethorpe, South Merstham and Coles Meads are among the towns around Subrosa that the same vans serve, together with much of Surrey further out, over the RH postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Anywhere the car sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — we drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; that suits Subrosa, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Subrosa?
Not one flat figure could be fair, because each job is different. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Merstham Baptist.
For that in mind, each enquiry from Subrosa opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid was put in, how much, whether it ran — before a figure. Those answers shrink a range down to one number.
Before a van sets off, you are told our quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In Subrosa and still beside the vehicle?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Subrosa or anywhere in Surrey.