AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Sydenham? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The trouble begins once it is pulled through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly cleaned where your car stands around Upper Sydenham. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Upper Sydenham: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can power anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not throw it away.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting SE26 6, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: the motor remains off.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way down Wells Park Road is too far to drive the car.
- Draining your tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
Get the people behind the counter to help you move your vehicle away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt in Upper Sydenham, whether it is the Texaco or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — entirely different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the very place the pickup draws from. A motor filled on a drive in Dulwich yesterday evening and not started since is the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though when the engine runs, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of the tank.
Once it's pulled in, the damage takes two forms. 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 parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight in Upper Sydenham makes it worse. Inside your tank only, waiting costs nothing. Then there is the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Crystals and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue separates back out of your diesel, so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Crystal Palace or the centre of Upper Sydenham equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits just inside your tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, wherever your vehicle has stopped around Greater London.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Upper Sydenham
Many motors place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and in dim light the two can appear identical. No one means it. A bottle picked up when heading home and tipped in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the typical story.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Kelvin Grove Primary School. Close to Prospect Close, someone pours a bottle in at home after work. Or a driver new to that flap refills the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by The Talma.
It happens most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you are in Upper Sydenham or the rest of Greater London.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Upper Sydenham?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Via the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
Watch for rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from MacColl Gardens, perhaps, or midway across Upper Sydenham. No starting it again to test: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the M4, under 15 miles from Upper Sydenham, by the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Upper Sydenham to park beside Wells Park Community Centre and a drive of under 10 miles towards Westminster are very separate jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. If it is caught soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Upper Sydenham: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Upper Sydenham: a side street near Church of St Philip the Apostle, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, which we get before all else — which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether the engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together after the tank is drained, right there. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue will not clear away on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. Whether it's a parking space by Sydenham or a driveway in Upper Sydenham, that is where we start it and you drive off. Our technicians make sure it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we leave. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Upper Sydenham, for a moment
Upper Sydenham is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 6 miles from the city centre and 5.5 miles from Westminster. Upper Sydenham sits at an elevation of around 68 metres, near the top of Sydenham Hill, and is characterized by a high proportion of flat dwellings. Upper Sydenham is bordered by other local areas, including Sydenham Hill, Sydenham, and Lower Sydenham, and has a population of around 12,098 residents.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Upper Sydenham included
Throughout the SE postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs around Upper Sydenham reach most of Greater London too, Sydenham Hill, Sydenham and Lower Sydenham included. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you're by a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service fits Upper Sydenham, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the car to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Upper Sydenham?
There is no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. Three things shift the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind The Grove Centre Church.
For that in mind, each enquiry from Upper Sydenham begins with the identical trio — what went in, what quantity, if it ran — before a quote. When those are answered, a range becomes one fixed figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is on the way, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Still alongside your car in Upper Sydenham?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran is everything our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across Greater London, Upper Sydenham included.