AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Twenties? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly rinsed where your car stands in Twenties. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Twenties: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, save your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting CT9 4, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch along Kingston Avenue.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
The attendants working at any Twenties filling station — the BP among them — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. At your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to go that way.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of blending — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Flete yesterday and never started remains the straightforward case, provided no one turns the key.
It causes 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, and so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. A motor left standing in Twenties with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that is the whole problem. Damage only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside the tank, it causes none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is simply the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following fill, and AdBlue separates again from the diesel, so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Lydden or the centre of Twenties equally.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere around Kent the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Twenties: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Garlinge Primary School and Nursery. Someone tips the container in outside their house, just off Willow Way, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside The Rodney.
It takes place 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. Same slip, same first response — leave it off — anywhere you are in Twenties or the rest of Kent.
Twenties: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: any may appear, perhaps midway across Twenties or coming back from Garlinge Recreation Ground. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M2, under 25 miles from Twenties, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Twenties to the car park by P.C. Jon Odell is a very different job from a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very rare if it is spotted soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Twenties
Anywhere it has stopped around Twenties — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Thanet Taekwon-Do and Kickboxing Centre — our van travels to your vehicle. Three answers decide the job, so first our technicians ask what went in, about the amount, plus whether your engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together when the tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed right through since residue will not flush away by itself. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. Whether it's a parking space at Margate or a driveway around Twenties, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. It is checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Twenties itself
Twenties is a small coastal locality in Kent, situated near the towns of Margate and Westbrook. Twenties has a population of around 564 people and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Twenties is located close to the seaside resorts of the Isle of Thanet, with Garlinge and Westbrook nearby. Twenties sits at an elevation of 18 metres, overlooking the coastal landscape of Kent.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Twenties included
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around Twenties also cover the spots about it, Garlinge, Westbrook and Margate among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the CT postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Twenties is a coastal area, 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 engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Twenties: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each jobs vary, a flat figure would not be honest. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Hartsdown Park.
Ahead of any quote, not afterwards, each enquiry from Twenties begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, plus if the engine ran. Those replies shrink the range right down to one figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay 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.
Twenties: still next to the vehicle?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best thing open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran is everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across Kent, Twenties included.