AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Thurrock Park? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts till your engine pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Thurrock Park, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has been run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Thurrock Park, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Tell us a postcode starting RM18 7, or whatever street is closest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Even a short stretch down Thurrock Park Way is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
The attendants on duty at any Thurrock Park filling station — the Asda among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Chadwell St Mary last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. A car left sitting around Thurrock Park with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the JET, and the problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Whether the vehicle sits in Biggin or the centre of Thurrock Park, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Essex your car is standing.
Thurrock Park: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; many layouts allow it. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The refill gets hurried outside Thameside Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped in. Close to Syringa Court, someone tips a bottle in at home after work. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Ship, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to an identical mistake, wherever in Thurrock Park or the remainder of Essex you happen to be.
Started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Thurrock Park?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. With any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Maybe returning from Falcon Wood, or midway across Thurrock Park, the motor might run rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off rather than restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M25, under 5 miles from Thurrock Park, by the next junction and stop safely, not carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system. That is why a hop across Thurrock Park to park near Frederick Andrews Court Hall and a drive of under 25 miles for Southend-on-Sea are such distinct jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once the motor has been started, and our technicians do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Noticed early, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Thurrock Park?
Anywhere it has stopped around Thurrock Park — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a road by St Mary the Virgin — the van travels to your car. Three replies decide the work, so first our engineers ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, and whether your motor has turned over.
Then the tank is cleared where your car waits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through because what remains won't wash away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, the fuel system is bled with fresh diesel. After that our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Tilbury Town or a driveway in Thurrock Park. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. As the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Thurrock Park
Thurrock Park is a small suburban area located on the coast of Essex, with an elevation of approximately 2 metres above sea level. Thurrock Park sits near the towns of Grays and Tilbury, and is close to the urban centre of Southend-on-Sea. Thurrock Park is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is situated within commuting distance of London, about 20 miles to the west. Thurrock Park has a population of around 1211 residents.
Thurrock Park and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in Thurrock Park are passed to teams that serve the towns near it — Grays, Tilbury plus Little Thurrock — and most of Essex further out, across RM postcodes. Close to a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Checking is better than guessing, so phone.
Anywhere your vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Thurrock Park, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Thurrock Park?
Every job is different, so no single quote is fair. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind St Mary's Church Hall.
For that in mind, every call from Thurrock Park opens with the same trio — which fluid got in, how much, if the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Once those are answered, a range turns into one fixed number.
The quote is given during the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside the car in Thurrock Park?
Not touching your car is, then, the best thing you can do. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Thurrock Park or anywhere across Essex.