Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in West Wickham
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the engine off and leave your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm begins once it's sucked through your lines — it will not burn, and it will not combine with diesel. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully rinsed where the vehicle sits in West Wickham. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, West Wickham: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BR4 9, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Moving the car just a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Rose Walk.
- Emptying your tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
Rolling your vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever West Wickham forecourt you're on, the Shell included. At home, the car stays just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of blending — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits beneath the diesel, which is why a vehicle topped up in Park Langley last night and not switched on stays the simple one, provided no one turns the key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight in West Wickham makes things worse. Inside the tank only, time costs nothing. The water in it causes harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Esso, and the problem is thinned fuel. Mixed into your diesel and sitting still, it is no threat at that stage; using the engine is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates back out — and the following tankful will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of West Wickham or out in Addington, does more harm than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Greater London the car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around West Wickham?
It's not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Hawes Down Primary School the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Aberdare Close. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Swan, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new car, a company vehicle, or the other vehicle in a home with one of each fuels — the cars drivers use least. Same mistake, same first step — leave it off — wherever you are in West Wickham or the remainder of Greater London.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in West Wickham?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. With any running time, it travels to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and lines.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from McAndrew's Recreation Ground, say, or part way across West Wickham. No starting it again to check: pull over once it is safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M25, under 10 miles from West Wickham, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further into your system. That's why a hop across West Wickham to park beside Theatre 62 and a drive of under 15 miles towards Westminster are such separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after the motor has been running. Long-term damage is very unusual if it is spotted quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around West Wickham: what it takes
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around West Wickham: a side street near West Wickham Bowling Club, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. What went in, roughly the quantity, plus if your engine has turned over: our technicians check first, since those shape the job.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not clear away on its own. Clean diesel goes in after your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Engine not run? Then expect about half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside the nearest station or a drive in West Wickham, that is where we start the engine and you head off. Before we go, our technicians check it's running properly with clean diesel in. Since the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About West Wickham, for a moment
West Wickham is a suburban area in the London Borough of Bromley, situated near the River Beck, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. West Wickham sits at an elevation of 84 metres, approximately 10.5 miles from central London, and is close to nearby places such as Spring Park and Coney Hall. West Wickham has a population of around 5999 residents, living in a mix of old and new housing stock. West Wickham is also near Upper Elmers End, another local suburban area.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, West Wickham included
AdBlue call-outs in West Wickham are passed to vans that cover the towns around it — Spring Park, Coney Hall as well as Upper Elmers End — and most of Greater London further out, throughout BR postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service fits West Wickham, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since we empty it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in West Wickham: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got 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 Wickham Library.
Before a quote, never afterwards, each enquiry from West Wickham opens with three checks: the liquid, the amount, and whether the engine ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
West Wickham: still beside the vehicle?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in West Wickham or anywhere in Greater London.