Aldrington: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your engine off then keep the ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle stands around Aldrington. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Aldrington
Do these:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, pull the keys out.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BN3 4, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Never:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance up Coleman Avenue is too far to drive it.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
The attendants on duty at any Aldrington forecourt — the BP among them — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. On your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It does not combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in West Blatchington last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. By daybreak, a vehicle parked around Aldrington with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's only in your tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it brings no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside that tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. Whether the vehicle is in Portslade-by-Sea or the centre of Aldrington, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters more. Why: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around East Sussex your car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Aldrington: how it ends up there
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two may look the same. No one means it. Usually it's never the filling station: a driver buys a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The top-up gets hurried outside Hove Junior School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were taken in. Close to Wish Road, a driver tips a container in on that drive in the evening. One more pattern: darkness, the car park by The Garden Bar, and someone using that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, new vehicles, company vehicles, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. Wherever around East Sussex, Aldrington as well, the slip does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Aldrington?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, perhaps part way across Aldrington or returning from Aldrington Recreation Ground. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Aldrington sits under 25 miles from the M23; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Aldrington to the car park by Sportsdirect Fitness Hove is a very different job from a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it's caught soon.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Aldrington: what it takes
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a street beside St Philip's, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Aldrington, and our van comes to it. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over: we ask first, because those shape the job.
Next, emptying the tank on the spot removes the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. What remains from AdBlue won't flush away unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. Testing the car comes last, once clean diesel is added and the filter is cleaned or, if needed, replaced. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your motor has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed your system on new diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Aldrington or in a space at Portslade. Before we leave, our engineers check it is running smoothly with fresh diesel in. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Aldrington itself
Aldrington is a coastal suburban area in East Sussex, situated near the city of Brighton and Hove. Aldrington lies close to the sea, with an elevation of around 11 metres, and is characterized by a high proportion of flat dwellings. Aldrington is part of the larger Brighton and Hove urban area, with nearby neighbourhoods including Hove and Hangleton. Aldrington is home to a population of approximately 10,991 people.
AdBlue drains in Aldrington and across East Sussex
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Aldrington also cover the places round it, Hove, Hangleton and Southern Cross among them, and most of East Sussex beyond, across the BN postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats assuming, and so phone.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — your drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Aldrington, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Aldrington?
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things move the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Shahjalal Mosque & Islamic Center.
That's why each call from Aldrington starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Next to the vehicle around Aldrington, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Aldrington or wherever in East Sussex, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran.