AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Fant? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the motor off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens until your motor pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Upper Fant, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the engine has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Fant: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting ME16 8, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: the motor stays off.
- Turning the key to ignition alone starts the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Whitmore Street.
- Draining that tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle off the island if you're on a forecourt in Upper Fant, whether it's the Esso or elsewhere. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it is fed straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
It doesn't blend. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it waits beneath your diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Cherry Orchard last night and not switched on remains the straightforward case, as long as nobody touches your key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is flushed out. If the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting till morning around Upper Fant leaves things worse. Inside that tank alone, time does nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have an issue of thin fuel. Harm only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside your tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the following tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Upper Fant or out in Maidstone, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever across Kent the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Upper Fant: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Michael's Church of England Infant School Maidstone the top-up is rushed. Close to Upper Fant Road, a driver pours a container in on the drive after work. Else, after dark by The Walnut Tree, the car gets topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet vehicle, or the spare vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the cars people use least. Wherever you're around Upper Fant or the rest of Kent, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Fant?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. It has been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might appear, perhaps part way across Upper Fant or coming back from Clare Park. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Leave it off instead of restarting it to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M20, under 3 miles from Upper Fant, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why crossing Upper Fant to park beside St Michael's and a drive of under 25 miles for Southend-on-Sea are very distinct jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once the engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Lasting damage is very rare when it is noticed early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Upper Fant?
A road beside Astor Sports & Leisure Complex, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in Upper Fant, our engineers travel to it. Which fluid went in, roughly the quantity, plus if the motor has been run: our technicians ask before all else, since those decide the job.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since residue will not clear away by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. You head off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Upper Fant or in a bay outside Maidstone West. It's tested on fresh diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Upper Fant itself
Upper Fant is a suburban area in Kent, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 30 metres. Upper Fant forms part of the wider area that includes Lower Fant and Fant, with nearby Tovil also being a neighbouring community. Upper Fant is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, typical of many suburban areas in the South East of England.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Upper Fant included
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Upper Fant also cover the spots about it, Lower Fant, Fant and Tovil among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the ME postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Anywhere the car stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — we empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; which suits Upper Fant, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Upper Fant?
Because each callouts differ, a single figure would not be fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it turns on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Parish Church of St Andrew, Barming Heath.
That is why each call from Upper Fant starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. Given them, a range shrinks to one firm number.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Beside the car in Upper Fant, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Upper Fant or anywhere around Kent.