Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Tuesley
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Tuesley. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Tuesley, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Ring right where you are. Say a GU7 1 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Don't do these:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to reposition your car.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way down Rosemary Gardens is too far to drive it.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
On a forecourt in Tuesley, whether it is the JET or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. On your own driveway, don't touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a separate tank it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Milford last night and not switched on stays the straightforward case, as long as nobody turns your key.
Once it is sucked in, the harm takes two forms. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm by morning for a car parked around Tuesley. Just in that tank, it stays the same. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Esso, and the problem is thinned fuel. Blended into the diesel and left still, it is no threat at that stage; using the motor does the harm.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Hydestile or the middle of Tuesley.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Surrey the car has come to rest, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Tuesley?
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Milford School. After work, a container goes in on a drive near Taragon Way. Another version: darkness, the car park outside Inn on the Lake, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a new car, a fleet car, or the other vehicle of a home with both fuels — the vehicles people know the least. Wherever across Surrey, Tuesley included, the mistake does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Tuesley: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. With any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might appear, perhaps part way across Tuesley or coming back from Milford Golf Club. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M3, under 15 miles from Tuesley, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so driving for Chichester, under 25 miles away, makes a much larger job than crossing Tuesley to the car park by Busbridge Lakes. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has come to a stop, and once the motor has been run there is more of it. If it is caught soon, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Tuesley?
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Tuesley: a side street near Milford Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers get before all else — what went in, the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when your tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since residue will not wash away unaided. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming the system with new diesel comes last. Whether it is a parking bay by Milford (Surrey) or a driveway in Tuesley, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Tuesley and where it is
Tuesley is a small hamlet in Surrey, situated inland at an elevation of 72 metres, and is located near Enton Green, Holloway Hill, and Ockford Ridge. Tuesley is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is home to a population of around 510 residents. Tuesley sits within the South East region, approximately 31.8 miles from London and 23.8 miles from the nearest city, Chichester. Tuesley remains a quiet, rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, Tuesley included
AdBlue jobs in Tuesley go to teams that cover the places near it — Enton Green, Holloway Hill plus Ockford Ridge — and much of Surrey further out, throughout GU postcodes. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Tuesley is a rural hamlet, and an on-site 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 is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Tuesley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the jobs vary, a flat price would not be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Milford Parish Church.
With that in mind, each enquiry from Tuesley opens by asking the identical trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — ahead of any figure. The answers turn a range into a straight price.
You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
Still alongside the vehicle around Tuesley?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Surrey, Tuesley included.