AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Westerham? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Westerham, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has been run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Westerham
Do:
- So nobody can turn the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting TN16 1, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start the engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down London Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move your vehicle off the island if you are at a forecourt around Westerham, whether it is the BP or somewhere else. At home, the vehicle stays just where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Moorhouse Bank yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine runs, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it touches until it is removed completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. A vehicle left standing around Westerham with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a second kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Sunningvale Service Station's forecourt leaves your fuel watery — that's the main issue. Harm only comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It can't just be run through, because it does not burn. Whether your vehicle sits in Brasted Chart or the heart of Westerham, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Wherever across Kent the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue still inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Westerham
It is not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It usually takes place outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Churchill Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School the refill is hurried. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Market Square. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The George and Dragon, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up most in a rental, a new motor, a company car, or the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people know least. Wherever you're around Westerham or the remainder of Kent, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave it off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Westerham?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. It has been pulled through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Maybe returning from Grasshopper On The Green Beer Garden, or midway across Westerham, your motor may run rough, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. No restarting to test: pull over once it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M25, under a mile from Westerham, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Hopping across Westerham to the car park by Wolfe Statue is one thing; driving for Westminster, under 25 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to clean out once the motor has been started, and we do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Long-term damage is very unusual if it's noticed early.
Westerham: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A road beside Churchill Memorial, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever your car has come to rest in Westerham, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether the engine has run, since those replies decide this work.
Next, emptying the tank right there removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. A careful flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains will not clear away by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on fresh diesel. At that point we fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay at Hurst Green or a drive in Westerham. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Westerham and where it is
Westerham is a town situated in the valley of the River Darent in Kent, with Hosey Hill and Force Green nearby. Westerham sits at an elevation of 121 metres, close to the North Downs, and is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock. Westerham is located near French Street and is approximately 18.7 miles from London. Westerham has a population of around 3952 residents.
AdBlue drains across Westerham and Kent
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Westerham also cover the spots round it, Hosey Hill, Force Green and French Street among them, and most of Kent beyond, across the TN postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you suits Westerham, a riverside town: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, since we drain it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Westerham: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so not one single price would be honest. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind St Mary the Virgin.
For that reason, each enquiry from Westerham opens with the same trio — what got in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of a figure. Those replies narrow the range down to one figure.
Our quote is given on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Still next to the car in Westerham?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Westerham or wherever in Kent.