AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Beaulieu? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave your motor off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the lines — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Beaulieu, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Beaulieu
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and we can see.
- Call just where you are. Quote a SO42 7 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't weaken it.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way down High Street.
- By the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
Moving the car off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Beaulieu forecourt you are on, the East Boldre Garage included. On that drive, your car remains exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. Stored in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once tipped in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools low where the pickup takes its fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Hill Top last night and never started remains the simple case, as long as nobody touches your key.
Once it is drawn in, the harm takes two forms. What is left when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny passages and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is cleared out. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Beaulieu with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it's only in that tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, and that is a separate form of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only when your motor works on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Furzey Lodge or the middle of Beaulieu.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Anywhere in Hampshire your car has stopped, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Beaulieu
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then behind one flap, and in dim light the two can look the same. Nobody means it. It usually occurs outside the house, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Beaulieu Village Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped in. Near Hatchet Lane, someone tips a bottle in on that drive in the evening. One more version: dim light, a pub car park by the pub in the village, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever around Beaulieu or the rest of Hampshire you are.
Beaulieu: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. It's been pulled through the filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Patrick's Patch Learning Garden, perhaps, or part way across Beaulieu. No restarting to check: pull over once safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M271, under 10 miles from Beaulieu, at the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into the system. That's why a hop across Beaulieu to park near Beaulieu Village Hall and a drive of under 10 miles for Southampton are such distinct jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has ended up. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it is caught quickly.
Beaulieu: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Wherever it has stopped around Beaulieu — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street by Palace House — the van travels to your car. Three replies shape the work, so first we ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, plus whether the motor has run.
Then that tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned right through because residue will not wash out unaided. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, outside Beaulieu Road or on a driveway in Beaulieu. It's tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our engineers leave. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Beaulieu
Beaulieu is a small village located on the south coast of England, in the county of Hampshire, with a population of around 524 people. Beaulieu sits at a low elevation of approximately 4 metres above sea level, near the shores of the Solent Strait. Beaulieu is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and is situated near other small settlements such as Baileys Hard and Hatchet Gate. Beaulieu is also close to the larger city of Southampton, which is about 6 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Beaulieu and Hampshire
Throughout the SO postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Beaulieu reach most of Hampshire as well, Baileys Hard, Hatchet Gate and The Hummicks among them. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
Anywhere the car sits — your drive at home, a side street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Beaulieu, a coastal village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Beaulieu: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so not one fixed price is fair. What moves the cost is, firstly, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the vehicle is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Secret Army Exhibition.
Ahead of any figure, not afterwards, every call from Beaulieu opens with three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus if it ran. Their answers narrow the range down to a single number.
Our quote is given on the call, before a van sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Beaulieu: still next to the vehicle?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Hampshire, Beaulieu too.