Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bevois Town
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition as well. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens till your engine pulls it round. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and carefully rinsed where the vehicle sits around Bevois Town. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps straight away, Bevois Town: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring right where you are. Say a SO14 0 postcode or the closest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Never do these:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to shift your car.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short distance up Forster Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, at the verge.
At a forecourt in Bevois Town, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car clear of the pump. Stopped on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. Neither side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its supply from. A motor filled on a drive in Banisters Park yesterday evening and not started since is the straightforward case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once the motor turns, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It attacks certain metals found in fuel components, working on any part it touches until it is cleared from your system. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. A motor left sitting around Bevois Town with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel 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
Petrol put into a diesel on BP's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that is the main problem. Mixed through the diesel and left still, it's no threat at that stage; running your motor does the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue separates again from the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and trying the engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake — in Westwood Park or the heart of Bevois Town alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits only inside that tank, the easiest section of the whole system to empty, wherever your car has come to rest around Hampshire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Bevois Town?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's not the filling station: someone picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Bevois Town Primary School. Close to Thomas Lewis Way, someone pours a container in at home in the evening. Otherwise, after dark outside The Hobbit, your car is refilled by someone opening that flap the first time.
Hired vehicles, brand-new cars, fleet cars, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it the most. Same mistake, same first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Bevois Town or the rest of Hampshire.
Bevois Town: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through the fuel filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Ascupart Garden or halfway across Bevois Town. No starting it again to check: pull over when it is safe, then switch everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M27, under 3 miles from Bevois Town, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Bevois Town to park near Bevois Town Church (Southampton Chinese Christian Church Centre) and a drive of under 3 miles towards Southampton are such separate jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's spotted early.
Bevois Town: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Bevois Town: a side street close to Kingdom Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers decide the work, and so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid was put in, roughly what quantity, plus whether the motor has run.
Next, emptying that tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since residue will not wash away by itself. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, after clean diesel is added and the filter gets flushed or, if necessary, swapped. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the last step. At that point we fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay by St Denys or a drive around Bevois Town. It is checked on new diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians leave. Because the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Bevois Town itself
Bevois Town is a suburban area located near the coast in southern Hampshire, sitting at an elevation of around 12 metres above sea level. Bevois Town is close to the city of Southampton, with Bevois Valley and Bevois Mount nearby. Bevois Town has a high proportion of flat dwellings, reflecting its urban character. Bevois Town is part of the larger Southampton urban area, with St Denys also in the vicinity.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Bevois Town included
Bevois Valley, Bevois Mount and St Denys are among the towns near Bevois Town that the same vans serve, along with most of Hampshire beyond, throughout the SO postcode area. Ring and ask rather than guess if you are by a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Bevois Town is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Bevois Town?
There's no honest single quote, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open drive is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight space behind Boulder Shack Climbing Gym.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Bevois Town begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether it ran — ahead of a quote. When those are answered, a range becomes one firm number.
The quote is given on the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still alongside the vehicle around Bevois Town?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Bevois Town or anywhere in Hampshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.