AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Horsley? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the system draws it in. Caught before the engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in West Horsley. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, West Horsley: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting KT24 6, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the spot.
Don't:
- Moving your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start the pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Silkmore Lane.
- Beside the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
At a forecourt in West Horsley, whether it is the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the intake sucks from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Ockham last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around West Horsley with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is just inside that tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the BP, and the problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is in that tank it does no damage; 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. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Effingham Common or the middle of West Horsley.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever around Surrey your vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
West Horsley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs invite it. It mostly happens at home, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside The Raleigh School the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off The Street. Otherwise, after dark outside The King William IV, your car is refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
It crops up the most in a rental, a new motor, a fleet car, or the spare vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the cars people use the least. Wherever around Surrey, West Horsley included, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
West Horsley: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and pipework.
Perhaps returning from Horsley and Send Cricket Club, or part way across West Horsley, your engine might run rough, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or stall. Once safe, stop and turn everything off — without turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
West Horsley sits under 5 miles from the M25; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and pull up somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
A quick hop across West Horsley to the car park by West Horsley Village Hall is one matter; heading towards Westminster, under 25 miles away, is another, because each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it's noticed quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around West Horsley
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around West Horsley: a side street close to Theatre in the Woods, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies shape the job, and so before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly the amount, plus if the motor has run.
Next, draining the tank right there takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. Your system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. A test of the car comes at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter gets flushed or, where necessary, swapped. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the fuel system, and that is the last step. You set off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around West Horsley or in a bay outside Horsley. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About West Horsley
West Horsley is a small village in Surrey, situated inland at an elevation of 76 metres, and is located approximately 21.8 miles from London. West Horsley has a population of around 710 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. West Horsley is near several other villages, including East Horsley, East Clandon, and West Clandon, and is close to the city of Westminster. West Horsley remains a quiet, rural community with a strong sense of local identity.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, West Horsley included
East Horsley, East Clandon and West Clandon are among the towns around West Horsley that the same vans reach, together with most of Surrey further out, over the KT postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service suits West Horsley, a rural village: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, because our engineers drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
West Horsley: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Every job differs, and so not one fixed quote would be honest. What moves the cost is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind West Horsley Place.
For that reason, each enquiry from West Horsley opens by asking the same trio — what went in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before any figure. Given them, a range shrinks to a single firm number.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Next to your car in West Horsley, still?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in West Horsley or wherever within Surrey.