AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in The Moor? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble just comes once your pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in The Moor, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the motor has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
The Moor, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, which stops someone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting TN18 4, or whatever street is closest, and our van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Shifting the car even a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's wasted.
- Even a short way down Pipers Lane is too far to drive it.
- Draining that tank on your own beside the road is not worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt around The Moor, whether it is the BP or somewhere else. On your own drive, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Little Conghurst overnight and left unstarted is the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but when the engine turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does 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 is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle parked around The Moor. Just inside the tank, it stays the same. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a separate kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It can't just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue splits back from the diesel, and so thinning it won't work. That is why the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Pipsden or the heart of The Moor equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever across Kent your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around The Moor
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; many layouts invite it. A bottle picked up while heading home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Hawkhurst Church of England Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Hensill Lane. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by Eight Bells Inn, and someone using that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical slip, an identical first step — leave it switched off — wherever you happen to be in The Moor or the remainder of Kent.
The Moor: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It has been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from the green space at the edge of the village or halfway across The Moor. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M20, under 25 miles from The Moor, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further into the system. That's why a hop across The Moor to park beside St. Laurence Church and a drive of under 50 miles towards Canterbury are such distinct jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's spotted early.
The Moor: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our technicians come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around The Moor: a side street close to Copt Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies shape the job, so first our technicians ask which fluid was put in, about the amount, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then the tank is emptied where your car waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through because what remains will not flush away by itself. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. Then fresh diesel, then a check of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we get there, if your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the final step. You head off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a driveway in The Moor or in a space at Etchingham. It's checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our engineers head off. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About The Moor itself
The Moor is a small village in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of 67 metres, approximately 42 miles from London. The Moor lies near the towns of Hawkhurst and Canterbury, with the latter being about 30 miles away. The Moor has a population of around 946 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across The Moor and Kent
Hawkhurst, Highgate and High Street are among the towns around The Moor that the same vans reach, along with most of Kent beyond, throughout the TN postcode area. Phone and check instead of guessing when you're close to a border, or somewhere tricky to explain.
The Moor is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around The Moor
No flat figure would be fair, because each job is different. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Village Hall.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: every The Moor call begins with precisely that, before any quote, not after. Given those replies, the range narrows to one firm number.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, dig out your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Next to your car in The Moor, still?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across The Moor or anywhere within Kent, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether it ran.