Badshot Lea: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm starts until your engine pulls it round. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Badshot Lea. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Badshot Lea, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so do not bin it away.
- Call right where you are. Quote a GU9 9 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Moving your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Leave it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Lower Weybourne Lane.
- By the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
At a forecourt in Badshot Lea, whether it is the Sainsbury's or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was intended to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and pools low where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Heath End last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; and, since it attacks some metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays inside. A car left standing in Badshot Lea with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Esso, and this problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in that tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether your car sits in Aldershot or the heart of Badshot Lea, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Wherever across Surrey the car has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Badshot Lea: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. Nobody intends it. A bottle picked up while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
Usually, it takes place in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Badshot Lea Village Infant School. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive close to St Georges Road. Otherwise, after dark outside Cricketers, your car gets refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
Rented cars, new motors, company cars, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars get it most. Wherever across Surrey, Badshot Lea included, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first response: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Badshot Lea, and the engine started?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It has been pulled through your filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, maybe part way across Badshot Lea or returning from Badshot Lea Green. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M3, under 10 miles from Badshot Lea, at the first junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That's why a hop across Badshot Lea to park near St George's Church and a drive of under 50 miles for Winchester are very separate jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it's spotted quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in Badshot Lea: what it takes
A road beside The Kiln / Badshot Lea Village Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has come to rest around Badshot Lea, we travel to it. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, and whether your engine has been run: we ask first, because those shape the work.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than for petrol. Next, the filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of the vehicle. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers turn up, if the motor hasn't run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no problem, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to prime the system on clean diesel. You drive off as soon as our technicians have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Badshot Lea or in a space at Aldershot. The test before our technicians leave is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. No garage is required at any point, with the entire job done on the spot. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Badshot Lea, for a moment
Badshot Lea is a village in Surrey, situated on the shores of the Basingstoke Canal, with nearby lakes and water features. Badshot Lea sits at an elevation of 76 metres, surrounded by the rolling countryside of the South East region. Badshot Lea has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are particularly prevalent in the area. Badshot Lea is located near other small villages, including Weybourne and Runfold, and is within commuting distance of larger cities like Winchester and London.
AdBlue drains across Surrey, Badshot Lea included
AdBlue jobs in Badshot Lea go to vans that serve the towns around it — Weybourne, Runfold plus Hale — and most of Surrey beyond, across GU postcodes. Assuming won't help close to a border or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Badshot Lea is a village, and an on-site 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 stands, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Badshot Lea: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, and so not one fixed price would be honest. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the vehicle, because an open drive is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight gap behind The Lighthouse Aldershot.
What got in, how much, and if it ran: every Badshot Lea call opens with precisely that, before a quote, not after. When they are known, a range turns into one fixed number.
Quoted on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your insurance whilst we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Badshot Lea: still alongside the vehicle?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Badshot Lea or wherever in Surrey, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.