Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Alton
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep your motor off and leave the ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system pulls it in. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully cleaned where your car stands in Alton. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Alton, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, take the keys away.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so do not bin it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting GU34 1, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring wherever you stand.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: your engine stays off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short distance up High Street is too far to drive it.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Ask the attendants to help you move your vehicle off the island if you are on a forecourt around Alton, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or elsewhere. At home, your car stays just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the very place the pickup draws from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Spitalhatch last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it is cleared out. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle sitting around Alton. Just in that tank, it stays the same. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector depend on diesel running past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the BP. Blended through the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; running your motor does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether your car is in The Butts or the centre of Alton, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, and so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Hampshire the car is sitting.
Alton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — can appear the same. No one means it; plenty of designs allow it. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways account for most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Saint Lawrence Church of England Primary School. Near Turk Street, someone pours a container in on the drive after work. Otherwise, in dim light by The Swan, the vehicle is topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same mistake, same first response — keep it off — wherever you are around Alton or the rest of Hampshire.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Alton, and the motor started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the filter, along the lines, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Maybe coming back from Alton Town Park, or midway across Alton, your engine may run rough, smoke, drop power, light up your dash or cut out. When you safely can, stop and switch everything off — with no turning it on again to test. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M3, under 10 miles from Alton, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Alton to the car park by John Henry Newman is a very different job from a run towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. If it's spotted early, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Alton
A road by Town Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your car has stopped around Alton, our technicians travel to it. The job depends on three answers, and our engineers get first — which fluid was put in, the amount, and if your engine has turned over.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue will not wash out unaided. Testing the car follows last, once fresh diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, where needed, replaced. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The last step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, outside the nearest station or on a drive around Alton. It is checked on new diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our technicians leave. Because the job is done in full where the car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Alton and where it is
Alton is a town situated in the valley of the River Wey in Hampshire, with a riverside setting and an elevation of around 105 metres. Alton lies approximately 44 miles south-west of London and 16 miles east of Winchester, making it a commuter town for both cities. Alton has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Alton is surrounded by smaller neighbourhoods, including Mount Pleasant, Newtown, and Wilsom.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Alton included
Over the GU postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Alton serve most of Hampshire as well, Mount Pleasant, Newtown and Wilsom among them. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Alton is a riverside town, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Alton
Because the jobs vary, a flat price wouldn't be fair. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for a van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Alton Library.
That's why every call from Alton starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. Their answers shrink a range down to a single number.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still next to your car in Alton?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Alton or anywhere in Hampshire.