Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Willesborough
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition as well. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. In Willesborough, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Willesborough, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting TN24 0, or simply the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Don't do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself starts the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way along Highfield Road.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it on your own.
The staff working at any Willesborough filling station — the BP among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. On that drive, your car stays exactly as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. No part in a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in South Willesborough last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid waits at the base of your tank, untouched — but it would be first through if the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow passages and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's flushed out. Lines carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a car parked around Willesborough. Just in your tank, it stays stable. And there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Tesco, and the issue is thinned fuel. No damage is done as long as it stays unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so watering it won't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in New Town or the heart of Willesborough equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Anywhere in Kent your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Willesborough?
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; many designs allow it. It usually happens at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Willesborough Infant School the top-up is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Church Road. Or the car is topped up in the car park at The William Harvey, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in Kent, Willesborough as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: keep it off.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Willesborough?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Through the filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
You may see the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Willesborough Cricket Club or halfway across Willesborough. No starting it again to test: stop once safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M20, under a mile from Willesborough, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Willesborough to the car park by St. Mary the Virgin, Willesborough is a very different job from a run towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. If it's caught early, long-term damage is very rare.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Willesborough?
A street by Christ Church Willesborough, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your car has come to rest around Willesborough, our technicians come to it. What got in, about how much, plus whether your motor has been run: our engineers ask first, because those decide the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when that tank is drained, right there. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Engine not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Last, the fuel system is bled with new diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Willesborough or in a bay at Ashford International. It is tested on fresh diesel to confirm it runs properly before our technicians go. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Willesborough
Willesborough is a suburban area in Kent, situated on the River Great Stour at an elevation of 49 metres. Willesborough lies near the city of Canterbury, approximately 12 miles away, and is part of the wider Ashford urban area. Willesborough has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being predominant, and is close to nearby places such as Willesborough Lees and Hinxhill Park. Willesborough is also within commuting distance of London, about 51 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Kent, Willesborough included
Throughout the TN postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Willesborough reach much of Kent as well, Willesborough Lees, Hinxhill Park and Sevington among them. Assuming doesn't help by a border or anywhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
No moving is needed. In Willesborough, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained on the spot, whether in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Willesborough: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the callouts differ, a single price would not be fair. Three things move the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind New Wells Church - Ashford.
That's why each call from Willesborough starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. With them, the range narrows to a single firm number.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Willesborough: still beside the vehicle?
Not touching the car is, then, the most useful move open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Willesborough or anywhere in Kent, once you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.