AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sydenham? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. In Sydenham, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Sydenham
Do these:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, pull your keys away.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it out.
- Give us a postcode starting TA6 4, or whichever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself starts your pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Weacombe Road.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Moving the car away from the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Sydenham forecourt you are on, the UK or any other. At home, the vehicle remains exactly where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
It doesn't combine. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the intake draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bridgwater last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a vehicle parked in Sydenham. Just in your tank, it stays stable. And there's the water: it brings no protection to the components that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Sainsbury's, and this issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Sydenham or out in Horsey, costs more than nearly any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Wherever around Somerset the car has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Sydenham?
Many cars place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and after dark the two may appear the same. Nobody intends it. It usually occurs at home, from a container grabbed en route home, rather than at the forecourt.
Usually, it happens 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 Eastover Primary School. A driver tips the container in outside their house, right off Raleigh Close, as the day ends. Another version: dim light, the car park outside Newmarket Hotel, and someone using that flap the first time.
Rented motors, new cars, fleet cars, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least familiar vehicles get it the most. Keep it off: that's the first response to the same mistake, wherever around Sydenham or the remainder of Somerset you happen to be.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Sydenham?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe returning from Parkway Park, or part way across Sydenham, your motor may go rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Sydenham lies under a mile from the M5; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than carrying on.
Hopping across Sydenham to the car park by Church of St Francis of Assisi is one thing; heading towards Wells, under 25 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. If it's spotted early, long-term damage is very rare.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Sydenham: what it takes
We come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Sydenham: a side street close to Bridgwater & Albion Rugby Club, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, about how much, plus whether your motor has been run: our technicians check first, because those decide the job.
Next, emptying that tank right there takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not wash away by itself. After that, your filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of the car. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, at Bridgwater or on a drive around Sydenham. The check before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Sydenham and where it is
Sydenham is a suburban area in Somerset, located inland at a low elevation of around 8 metres. Sydenham sits near the towns of East Bower and Eastover, and is close to the city of Wells, which is approximately 15 miles away. Sydenham has a population of around 8069 people, and its housing stock is predominantly semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains across Sydenham and Somerset
AdBlue jobs in Sydenham go to vans that cover the towns near it — East Bower, Eastover as well as Slape Cross — and much of Somerset beyond, throughout TA postcodes. Ring and ask instead of guessing when you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Wherever your vehicle sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Sydenham, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Sydenham
Each job is different, so not one single price is honest. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind The McMillan Theatre.
What went in, how much, plus if it ran: each Sydenham enquiry begins with precisely that, before a quote, not after. Once those are answered, a range turns into a single firm number.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Still alongside your car around Sydenham?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Sydenham or anywhere across Somerset.