AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Upper Walmer? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and your ignition too. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens till your motor sucks it through. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly flushed where your car stands in Upper Walmer. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upper Walmer: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting CT14 7, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Don't do these:
- No starting the motor — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run the pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it's pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way down Station Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
The staff working at any Upper Walmer forecourt — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. At home, the vehicle stays exactly as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it goes directly to your exhaust, treating what your motor lets out. No part in a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to go that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Upper Deal overnight and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when your engine turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What remains when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. A motor left standing around Upper Walmer with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. Blended through your diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless for now; running your engine is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether your car sits in Kingsdown or the heart of Upper Walmer, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere in Kent your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Upper Walmer: how it ends up there
Many motors put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. No one means it. A bottle bought when driving home and tipped in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the typical story.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside The Downs Church of England Primary School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the children were taken in. After work, a container goes in on a driveway near Nevill Gardens. One more pattern: dim light, the car park by The Freed Man, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Upper Walmer or the remainder of Kent you happen to be.
Upper Walmer: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. It has been sucked through the filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Deal Victoria & Barns Close Cricket Club, or part way across Upper Walmer, the motor might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. Once safe, pull over and turn everything off — without turning it on again to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M20, under 15 miles from Upper Walmer, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why crossing Upper Walmer to park beside Walmer Chapel and a drive of under 15 miles for Canterbury are such different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where your car has come to a stop, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Upper Walmer
A road beside Blessed Mary of Walmer, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere the vehicle has stopped around Upper Walmer, our engineers travel to it. The work rests on three replies, and our technicians ask for before all else — what went in, the amount, and if your motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when that tank is emptied, on the spot. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, and then a test of the car. If your engine hasn't run, most 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.
Bleeding the fuel system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking bay by Walmer or a drive around Upper Walmer, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. Before we leave, our engineers make sure it's running properly with fresh diesel in. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Upper Walmer and where it is
Upper Walmer is a suburban area situated on the coast of Kent, with a mix of detached housing and scenic views. Upper Walmer sits at an elevation of 29 metres, overlooking the English Channel, and is located near the historic town of Walmer. Upper Walmer is close to the nearby cities of Canterbury and Dover, and is a popular residential area with a population of around 3360 people. Upper Walmer benefits from its proximity to the M2 and A258 roads, providing easy access to London and other major towns in the South East.
AdBlue drains across Upper Walmer and Kent
Over the CT postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Upper Walmer serve much of Kent too, Walmer, Mill Hill and Lower Walmer included. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
Wherever your car stands — a drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits Upper Walmer, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Upper Walmer
Each job is different, so not one fixed price would be fair. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Old Walmer Court.
That is why each call from Upper Walmer starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it has run. Those replies shrink a range down to one figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear the quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Still next to your car around Upper Walmer?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Upper Walmer or anywhere within Kent, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.