Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bedford Place
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the engine off and keep your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage just starts when the pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Bedford Place, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Bedford Place
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Ring just where you are. Say a SO15 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Do not do these:
- Shifting your car just a few yards is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance along London Road.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
The attendants working at any Bedford Place forecourt — the Esso included — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. No part in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was intended to travel through one.
It does not blend. After it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Polygon overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — though it will be first through if your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it eats at some metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A vehicle left standing around Bedford Place with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more major than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Texaco, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It can't just be run through, because it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Nichols Town or the middle of Bedford Place.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Hampshire your car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Bedford Place?
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Hurrying, outside Banister Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. Near Bellevue Road, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive after work. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside London Road Brewhouse, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar cars see it most — rentals, new cars, company cars, and the spare motor in a family with both fuels. Wherever across Hampshire, Bedford Place as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Bedford Place: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, having passed via the fuel filter and lines.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Rockstone Place Park, perhaps, or midway across Bedford Place. No starting it again to check: stop once it is safe, then switch everything off. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Exit the M3, under 3 miles from Bedford Place, at the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so heading for Southampton, under a mile away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Bedford Place to the car park by The Edmund Kell Church. Tell us about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the motor has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has stopped. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's caught soon.
Bedford Place: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Anywhere it has stopped in Bedford Place — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street by Friends Meeting House — the van comes to the car. The job rests on three replies, and our engineers ask for first — which fluid got in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when your tank is emptied, right there. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of the car. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine has not run. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. At that point our engineers start the engine and you set off, whether from a parking space at Southampton Central or a driveway in Bedford Place. The check before our technicians go is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No workshop is required at any point, with the whole job done then and there. At the end, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Bedford Place itself
Bedford Place is a suburban area located near the coast in Hampshire, with an elevation of around 23 metres. Bedford Place sits close to the city of Southampton, being only 0.5 miles away, and is near other areas such as Bellevue and Newtown. Bedford Place is predominantly composed of flat-type housing, accommodating a population of approximately 16708 residents. Bedford Place is also situated within commuting distance to London, being around 68.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Bedford Place included
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Bedford Place also cover the spots about it, Bellevue, Newtown and Banisters Park among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the SO postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing when you're by a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
No towing is needed. In Bedford Place, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: the car is drained where it stands, whether in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Bedford Place: the cost of fixing it
No single figure would be honest, since every job is different. What shifts the cost is, first of all, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Southampton Crown Court.
Before any quote, not afterwards, every enquiry from Bedford Place begins with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and if it ran. With them, a range narrows to a single fixed figure.
You get that price by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Alongside the vehicle around Bedford Place, still?
Then, do nothing — that's the best step there is. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Bedford Place or anywhere in Hampshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.