Tatsfield: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The harm starts once it is sucked through your pump — it will not ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits in Tatsfield. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tatsfield
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring right where you are. Say a TN16 2 postcode or the closest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't thin it.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Paynesfield Road.
- Beside the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
On a forecourt in Tatsfield, whether it is the Sunningvale Service Station or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car clear of the pump. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It sinks, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Biggin Hill last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning in Tatsfield leaves it worse. Inside the tank only, time does nothing. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water gives none of that, which is a second kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol at the Texaco. No damage is done while it sits put, blended into your diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Berrys Green or the middle of Tatsfield.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever in Surrey the car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Tatsfield
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. A container bought when driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual story.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Tatsfield Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the car. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Westmore Green. Else, in dim light outside The Old Ship, the car is refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
Hired motors, new cars, company motors, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least known cars get it most. Wherever you are around Tatsfield or the remainder of Surrey, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tatsfield?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been drawn through the fuel filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Maybe coming back from Westmore Green, or midway across Tatsfield, your engine may run lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up your dash or cut out. When safe, stop and turn it off — without turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M25, under 3 miles from Tatsfield, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, so heading for Westminster, under 25 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Tatsfield to the car park by 1st Tatsfield Scouts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where the vehicle has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Tatsfield?
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a street near Beaver Water World, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Tatsfield, and our van comes to it. Three replies shape the work, and so before anything else we ask what went in, about the amount, plus if your engine has run.
Then your tank is emptied where your car waits, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush away by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, provided the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. You head off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Tatsfield or in a space at Oxted. The check before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Tatsfield
Tatsfield is a village in Surrey, situated on a hilltop at an elevation of 226 metres, with views towards the North Downs. Tatsfield is located approximately 16 miles from London and is close to the nearby villages of Titsey and Aperfield. Tatsfield has a population of around 1053 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Tatsfield remains a rural community with a strong sense of identity.
AdBlue drains across Tatsfield and Surrey
AdBlue call-outs around Tatsfield are passed to vans that cover the towns near it — Titsey, Aperfield as well as South Street — and much of Surrey further out, throughout TN postcodes. Assuming doesn't help close to a border or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
Wherever the car stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — we empty it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Tatsfield, a rural village, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Tatsfield
Each job differs, so no fixed price is honest. The cost shifts 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 turns on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind St Mary's, Tatsfield.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: every Tatsfield enquiry begins by asking exactly that, before a quote, never afterwards. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Tatsfield and still beside your car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Tatsfield or wherever within Surrey.