AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in The Mews? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits around The Mews. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, The Mews: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, take the keys out.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting SW18 2, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short way up Edison Mews.
- Draining your tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the island if you are at a forecourt in The Mews, whether it is the BP or elsewhere. At your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the engine. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to clean the fumes. A fuel pump isn't made to take it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It drops, because it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the intake draws its fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Clapham Junction overnight and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of that tank, untouched — but it would be the first thing through once the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It eats at certain metals found in fuel components, working on any part it reaches till it is cleared completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. A car left standing in The Mews with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, which is a second kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage comes while it stays put, blended into the diesel — only when the engine works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether your car sits in Wandsworth Common or the heart of The Mews, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Greater London your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around The Mews?
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and after dark the two can appear the same. No one intends it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Anglo Portuguese School of London, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills the car. In the evening, a container goes in on a driveway near Marcus Terrace. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills the car in dim light, parked in the car park outside Tir Na Nog.
The least familiar cars get it most — rentals, new ones, company ones, and the other motor of a family with one of each fuels. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere around The Mews or the remainder of Greater London you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around The Mews?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Garratt Lane Old Burial Ground, perhaps, or midway across The Mews. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off rather than restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M4, under 5 miles from The Mews, at the next junction and park safely, not driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across The Mews to park near Wandsworth Town Library and a drive of under 5 miles for Westminster are such distinct jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the engine has been started. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it is caught early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in The Mews?
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped in The Mews: a side street close to Parthian Climbing Wandsworth, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, about how much, plus whether your engine has turned over: our technicians ask before all else, since those shape the work.
Then that tank is drained where your car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is cleaned right through because residue will not wash out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed the system on clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space outside Wandsworth Town or a drive in The Mews, that is where our engineers start the engine and you head off. The test before we head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. Because the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About The Mews and where it is
The Mews is a locality in southwest London, situated on the riverside with views of the surrounding area. The Mews has a relatively low elevation of 9 metres and is located approximately 4.5 miles from central London. The Mews is close to nearby places such as Wandsworth, Southfields, and Earlsfield, and is characterized by predominantly flat-type housing. The Mews is a densely populated area with around 10,833 residents.
AdBlue drains across The Mews and Greater London
AdBlue jobs in The Mews go to teams that cover the towns around it — Wandsworth, Southfields plus Earlsfield — and much of Greater London further out, across SW postcodes. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you suits The Mews, a small village: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it there, in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around The Mews: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, and so no fixed quote is honest. What moves the price is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Cineworld.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus whether it ran: each The Mews call opens with exactly that, ahead of any figure, not afterwards. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
The Mews: still beside your car?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in The Mews or anywhere across Greater London.