AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Wainscott? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system pulls it in. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully rinsed where the vehicle sits around Wainscott. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Wainscott: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so do not throw it away.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting ME3 8, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the spot.
Do not do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: the motor remains off.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Even a short stretch down Hollywood Lane is too far to drive the car.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your vehicle away from the island if you are on a forecourt in Wainscott, whether it is the Esso or somewhere else. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Mockbeggar overnight and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the base of the tank, untouched — though it will be first through once your engine starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is 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. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a car sitting in Wainscott. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water part damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Co-op, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's inside your tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next fill, and AdBlue separates again from the diesel, and so thinning it won't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Strood or the heart of Wainscott equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Kent your car is sitting.
Wainscott: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts invite it. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle heading home and tips it in at home.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Hilltop Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Ashcroft Road. Another version: dim light, a pub car park by The Sans Pareil, and someone opening that flap the first time.
The least known cars get it the most — hire cars, new ones, fleet ones, and the spare vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types. An identical slip, same first step — keep it off — anywhere you are in Wainscott or the rest of Kent.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Wainscott, and the motor started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and lines.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, perhaps part way across Wainscott or returning from Hilltop Primary School Recreation Ground. No starting it again to test: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M2, under 3 miles from Wainscott, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further into the system. That's why crossing Wainscott to park beside Memorial Hall and a drive of under 15 miles towards Southend-on-Sea are very different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it's spotted soon.
Wainscott: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped around Wainscott — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road beside Church Hall — our van travels to the vehicle. Three replies shape the job, and so before anything else we ask what went in, about the amount, and whether the engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is emptied, on the spot. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains won't clear out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we turn up, if your motor has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Strood or on a driveway in Wainscott. Before we leave, our technicians make sure it's running correctly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Wainscott
Wainscott is a suburban area in Kent, situated on the north shore of the Thames estuary at an elevation of 39 metres. Wainscott lies near the towns of Southend-on-Sea and Rochester, with nearby villages including Noke Street, Frindsbury, and Upper Upnor. Wainscott is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is located approximately 27.9 miles from London. Wainscott has a population of around 5167 residents.
Wainscott and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Wainscott also cover the locations about it, Noke Street, Frindsbury and Upper Upnor among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the ME postcode area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Wherever your car sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — we drain it there, with no need to take it to us; that suits Wainscott, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Wainscott?
No flat figure could be honest, because every job is different. The price shifts 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 rests on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind English Martyrs.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: every Wainscott call begins with precisely those, before any figure, not afterwards. With them, the range shrinks to one fixed number.
The price is given during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Wainscott: still next to the car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Wainscott or anywhere in Kent.