Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tolworth
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. In Tolworth, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Tolworth, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not bin it away.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting KT5 9, or just the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Don't:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Raeburn Avenue.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the verge.
The attendants on duty at any Tolworth forecourt — the Esso included — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Old Malden last night and not started stays the simple one, provided no one turns the key.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What is left once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. Overnight, a car sitting in Tolworth with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is just inside your tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water content damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Shell, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Seething Wells or the heart of Tolworth alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and the tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Greater London the car is sitting.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tolworth: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of designs invite it. It mostly occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning while the children were dropped in. Someone pours the container in at home, right off Warren Drive North, as the day ends. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Royal Oak, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
Hired vehicles, new cars, fleet motors, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it the most. An identical slip, same first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you are in Tolworth or the remainder of Greater London.
Tolworth: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled through, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Perhaps returning from Alexandra Millenium Green, or midway across Tolworth, your engine might go rough, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or cut out. Stop when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M25, under 10 miles from Tolworth, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why a hop across Tolworth to park near Our Lady Immaculate and a drive of under 15 miles for Westminster are such separate jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Noticed soon, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Tolworth?
A street by Marks & Spencer, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in Tolworth, our engineers come to it. The work rests on three answers, which we ask for first — what got in, the quantity, and if your motor has turned over.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since what remains will not flush away by itself. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of the vehicle. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Last, the system is bled with fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, by the nearest station or on a driveway around Tolworth. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Tolworth and where it is
Tolworth is a suburban area in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, situated on the riverside in south-west London. Tolworth sits at an elevation of around 24 metres, close to the Hogsmill River and near the neighbouring areas of Berrylands and Surbiton. Tolworth has a population of approximately 9330 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Tolworth is located about 10.9 miles from central London, with Westminster just 10.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Tolworth and across Greater London
AdBlue jobs around Tolworth go to vans that cover the towns near it — Berrylands, Surbiton plus Southborough — and most of Greater London beyond, across KT postcodes. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Wherever the car sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — our technicians empty it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Tolworth, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tolworth: the cost of fixing it
Since each callouts vary, a single figure wouldn't be honest. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St George.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: every Tolworth enquiry begins by asking precisely those, ahead of a figure, not after. Those replies shrink a range down to one figure.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Still beside your car in Tolworth?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the best step there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Tolworth or anywhere around Greater London.