Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woodcote Green
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till your motor pulls it round. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Woodcote Green. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Woodcote Green: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Remove your keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting SM6 0, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Don't:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel won't weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Woodcote Road is too far to drive the car.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
The staff on duty at any Woodcote Green forecourt — the Shell among them — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, treating what your motor emits. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Carshalton on the Hill last night and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if your engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of damage from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. A car left sitting in Woodcote Green with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water part damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shells, and the issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in that tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue splits back out of the diesel, and so thinning it won't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than almost any other mistake — in Little Woodcote or the centre of Woodcote Green alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever around Greater London the vehicle sits.
Woodcote Green: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles waits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container bought when heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Wood Field Primary School the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Woodcote Green. One more version: darkness, a pub car park outside The Whispering Moon, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Woodcote Green or the rest of Greater London, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Woodcote Green: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It's been pulled through your filter and the fuel lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Perhaps coming back from the green space at the edge of the village, or part way across Woodcote Green, the engine may run rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or stall. Once you safely can, stop then turn it off — with no turning it on again to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M23, under 5 miles from Woodcote Green, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Woodcote Green to park beside St. Patrick's Church, Wallington and a drive of under 15 miles towards Westminster are very different jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after the engine has been run. Long-term damage is very unusual when it's spotted early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Woodcote Green: what it takes
The car stays put, whether that is a road near Wallington United Reformed Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Woodcote Green, and the van travels to it. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, plus if your motor has turned over: our technicians ask first, because those shape the job.
Then the tank is drained where the car stands, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. The fuel system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, provided the engine has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, the fuel system is primed with new diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, by Wallington or on a driveway around Woodcote Green. Our technicians make sure it runs correctly on clean diesel before we leave. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Woodcote Green and where it is
Woodcote Green is a suburban area in south London, situated approximately 11 miles from central London and near the neighbouring areas of South Beddington, Wallington, and Roundshaw. Woodcote Green has a population of around 5229 residents and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. Woodcote Green sits at an elevation of 92 metres, in a gently sloping area of the London Basin.
Woodcote Green and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around Woodcote Green also cover the places round it, South Beddington, Wallington and Roundshaw among them, and most of Greater London beyond, across the SM postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and ask.
Wherever the vehicle stands — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, with no need to take it to us; which suits Woodcote Green, a residential suburb, well.
Woodcote Green: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind St. Paul's.
With that in mind, every call from Woodcote Green begins by asking the same trio — what got in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before any quote. Once those are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Our price is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Woodcote Green: still next to the vehicle?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best thing open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Woodcote Green or anywhere in Greater London.