Bentworth: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly rinsed where the car stands in Bentworth. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bentworth: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pull the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and we can see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting GU34 5, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up The Magic Roundabout.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
The staff working at any Bentworth filling station — the BP included — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Kept in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Lasham last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. A car left sitting around Bentworth with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the another forecourt nearby, and this issue is diluted fuel. No damage is done while it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only once the motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush counts more, and turning the key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Lower Wield or the heart of Bentworth equally.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Hampshire the car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Bentworth: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars waits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: a driver buys a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside St Mary's Bentworth Church of England Primary School. Someone tips the container in at home, just off Village Street, as the day ends. Or a driver new to that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Star Inn (closed).
It comes up the most in a rental, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle of a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people know the least. Wherever you're in Bentworth or the rest of Hampshire, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Bentworth: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
You may see your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from The Green or halfway across Bentworth. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M3, under 10 miles from Bentworth, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Bentworth to the car park by Bentworth War Memoiral is one matter; heading for Winchester, under 15 miles away, is something else, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Noticed quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Bentworth?
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a road beside Jubilee Hall, a drive, a layby or a forecourt around Bentworth, and the van comes to it. What went in, roughly the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over: our engineers check before all else, since those decide the work.
Next, draining your tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. The system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the final step. At that point our technicians start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking space by Alton or a driveway in Bentworth. Before we leave, our engineers confirm it is running smoothly with new diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Bentworth and where it is
Bentworth is a small village in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 178 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Bentworth lies near the villages of Holt End, Wivelrod, and Thedden, and is approximately 13 miles from the city of Winchester. Bentworth is also within commuting distance of London, being around 46 miles from the capital. Bentworth remains a quiet, rural community with a population of around 515 people.
AdBlue drains around Bentworth and across Hampshire
The vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Bentworth also cover the spots around it, Holt End, Wivelrod and Thedden among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the GU postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Bentworth is a rural village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Bentworth: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single price, since the jobs aren't the same. What shifts the cost is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St Mary's.
With that reason, every enquiry from Bentworth begins with the same trio — what got in, how much, whether the engine ran — before a quote. Once those are known, a range becomes one firm number.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Beside the vehicle around Bentworth, right now?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Bentworth or anywhere in Hampshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.