AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashley? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the engine off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Ashley. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Ashley, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting SO20 6, or simply the name of a street nearby, so call from the car.
Don't:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift your vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch along Ashley Road.
- Draining the tank yourself beside the road is not worth trying.
Moving your car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Ashley forecourt you're on, the Murco included. At home, the vehicle remains exactly as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to treat the gases. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the intake draws from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Kings Somborne 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.
Once it's pulled in, the harm takes two forms. It attacks certain metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches until it is removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow passages. By daybreak, a car parked around Ashley with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it's only in the tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol put into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole problem. No harm is done as long as it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only when your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. Whether the car is in Horsebridge or the heart of Ashley, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever in Hampshire your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Ashley: how it ends up there
Many vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap, and after dark the two can look identical. Nobody intends it. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a container driving home and pours it in at home.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside King's Somborne Church of England Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up the vehicle. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Chalk Vale. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park by the pub in the village.
It comes up most in a hire car, a new motor, a fleet car, or the spare motor of a home with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers use the least. Wherever you're in Ashley or the rest of Hampshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ashley, and the motor started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the filter, through the pipework, and — with any running time — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that is how far it has gone.
Perhaps coming back from Ashley Wood, or part way across Ashley, your engine might go rough, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or stall. No starting it again to check: pull over once it is safe, then switch everything off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M3, under 10 miles from Ashley, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Mileage matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, so driving towards Winchester, under 10 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Ashley to the car park by Ashley Castle. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to flush once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the car has ended up. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Ashley?
Anywhere it has stopped in Ashley — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street beside St Mary's Church — our van travels to your vehicle. The work rests on three replies, and our technicians get before all else — what was put in, the quantity, and if your engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is emptied, right there. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians arrive, provided your motor has not run. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. Whether it is a parking space by Mottisfont & Dunbridge or a driveway in Ashley, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Our technicians make sure it runs properly on new diesel before we leave. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to go to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Ashley
Ashley is a small hamlet in Hampshire, situated approximately 6 miles from Winchester and 64 miles from London, at an elevation of around 95 metres. Ashley sits in a rural area surrounded by other small settlements, including Little Somborne and Up Somborne. Ashley has a population of around 526 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
Ashley and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Ashley are passed to vans that cover the towns near it — Little Somborne, Up Somborne plus Furzedown — and much of Hampshire further out, throughout SO postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No moving is needed. In Ashley, a rural hamlet, a van that comes to you works: the vehicle is emptied on the spot, whether in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Ashley
Since each jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be fair. Three things change the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind Ashley Park.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Ashley begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether it ran — before a figure. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
Our price is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Beside your car in Ashley, still?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best step there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Ashley or anywhere around Hampshire.