Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westcliff-on-Sea
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only starts once the pump starts pulling it. In Westcliff-on-Sea, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Westcliff-on-Sea, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians can see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SS0 8, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch up Genesta Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No emptying it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll your car off the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Westcliff-on-Sea, whether it is the BP or elsewhere. On that drive, your car stays just where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
It does not combine. After it is poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Porters Town last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through if your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. 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, so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. Lines carrying AdBlue mean harm overnight for a car parked around Westcliff-on-Sea. Only in your tank, it stays stable. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside that tank it causes no harm; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It does not 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 the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Prittlewell or the middle of Westcliff-on-Sea.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Essex your car is standing.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Westcliff-on-Sea
It's not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. It usually takes place at home, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Milton Hall Primary School and Nursery the top-up is hurried. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Valkyrie Road. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park outside The Hamlet Court.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet car, or the other vehicle in a family with both fuels — the vehicles drivers use the least. An identical slip, same first step — keep it off — wherever you happen to be around Westcliff-on-Sea or the rest of Essex.
Westcliff-on-Sea: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, along the lines, and — given any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
You may notice your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Memorial Garden or halfway across Westcliff-on-Sea. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M2, under 15 miles from Westcliff-on-Sea, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Westcliff-on-Sea to the car park by Buzzin' Brushes is a very different job from a run towards Southend-on-Sea, under a mile away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the engine has been run, and we do all of it where the car has stopped. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is noticed quickly.
Westcliff-on-Sea: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street by Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere the car has stopped around Westcliff-on-Sea, our technicians come to it. Which fluid got in, roughly the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over: we ask first, since those decide the work.
Then your tank is cleared where the car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not wash away on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians get there, if your motor has not run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the system is bled with new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, at Westcliff or on a driveway in Westcliff-on-Sea. It is tested on fresh diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers head off. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Westcliff-on-Sea, for a moment
Westcliff-on-Sea is a suburban area on the coast of Essex, situated near the city of Southend-on-Sea. Westcliff-on-Sea has a relatively low elevation of 38 metres and is predominantly composed of flat housing. Westcliff-on-Sea is located close to other nearby places such as Chalkwell and Clifftown, and is approximately 35 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Westcliff-on-Sea and across Essex
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around Westcliff-on-Sea also cover the locations round it, Chalkwell, Clifftown and Southend-on-Sea among them, and most of Essex beyond, across the SS postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you fits Westcliff-on-Sea, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Westcliff-on-Sea: the cost of fixing it
Because the callouts vary, a flat price wouldn't be fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Havens.
That's why every call from Westcliff-on-Sea starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. With those replies, a range shrinks to one firm number.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Westcliff-on-Sea: still beside your car?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Westcliff-on-Sea or anywhere in Essex.