AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Throat? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts till your motor sucks it round. In The Throat, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, The Throat: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting RG40 3, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, so keep the car off.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Croft Road.
- By the road, do not try emptying it yourself.
On a forecourt in The Throat, whether it is the Tesco or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, treating what the engine emits. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It does not blend. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a drive in Gardeners Green yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filters and narrow channels; meanwhile, since it eats at certain metals, each part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains in there. A car left sitting around The Throat with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running past them, and so the water part harms them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. No harm is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into the diesel — only when the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Wokingham or the centre of The Throat equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Berkshire the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in The Throat: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. The top-up gets hurried outside Evendons Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped off. A driver tips the container in outside their house, right off Bradley Drive, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Two Poplars, the vehicle gets refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere around Berkshire, The Throat included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around The Throat?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and pipework.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Wokingham Family Golf or halfway across The Throat. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Exit the A329(M), under 3 miles from The Throat, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across The Throat to the car park by California Ratepayers Hall is a very different job from a run towards Winchester, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Permanent damage is very unusual if it is spotted quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around The Throat: what it takes
Wherever it has stopped around The Throat — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a road beside Carnival Hub — the van travels to the vehicle. Three answers decide the job, so first our technicians ask what was put in, about what quantity, plus if the engine has run.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more with urea than for petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers turn up, provided the motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the last step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Wokingham or on a driveway in The Throat. It's tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs properly before our engineers go. As the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About The Throat itself
The Throat is a locality in Berkshire, situated inland at an elevation of 59 metres, approximately 31.9 miles from London. The Throat is characterized by its predominantly detached housing and is located near other small places such as Eastheath, Chapel Green, and Wick Hill. The Throat has a population of around 1367 residents, who live in a quiet area surrounded by the countryside of the South East region.
AdBlue drains across Berkshire, The Throat included
Over the RG postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in The Throat serve much of Berkshire too, Eastheath, Chapel Green and Wick Hill included. Near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
Wherever the car stands — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits The Throat, a small village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around The Throat: the cost of fixing it
There's no honest single quote, because the jobs are not the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Finchampstead Library.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: each The Throat enquiry begins with precisely those, before any quote, never afterwards. Once they are answered, a range becomes a single fixed figure.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
The Throat: still beside the car?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Berkshire, The Throat included.