Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bevois Valley
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your motor off then leave your ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only starts when the pump starts drawing it. In Bevois Valley, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bevois Valley
To do:
- Pocket your keys, which prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, and so do not bin it out.
- Ring just where you are. Say a SO17 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Thomas Lewis Way.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Bevois Valley forecourt — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. At home, the car remains just as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Westwood Park last night and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of the tank, untouched — but it will be first through once your motor 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 filters and tiny passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, each part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a car sitting in Bevois Valley. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes the fuel watery — that is the main fault. Harm only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable substance. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the next tankful will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Bevois Valley or out in Banisters Park, costs more than nearly any other mistake.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Hampshire the vehicle is standing.
Bevois Valley: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Bevois Town Primary School the refill is rushed. Near Lawn Road, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park at Bookshop Alehouse, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the cars drivers know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're in Bevois Valley or the remainder of Hampshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bevois Valley, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Via your filter, through the lines, and — with any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that is where it has gone.
Watch for lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — coming back from Ascupart Garden, say, or part way across Bevois Valley. Stop when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off rather than restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M27, under 3 miles from Bevois Valley, at the next junction and stop safely, not carrying on.
Hopping across Bevois Valley to the car park by Kingdom Hall is one thing; driving towards Southampton, under 3 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to rinse out once the engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it's spotted quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Bevois Valley?
A street beside Bevois Town Church (Southampton Chinese Christian Church Centre), a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Bevois Valley, we come to it. Three replies decide the job, so first our technicians ask what got in, roughly what quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. The fuel system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing the car follows at the end, once clean diesel goes in and your filter gets flushed or, where necessary, swapped. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our engineers get there, provided the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on clean diesel. You set off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Bevois Valley or in a bay outside St Denys. It is tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our technicians leave. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Bevois Valley and where it is
Bevois Valley is a suburban area located near the coast in southern Hampshire, sitting at an elevation of around 16 metres. Bevois Valley is close to the city of Southampton, with Bevois Town and Bevois Mount nearby. Bevois Valley has a high proportion of flat dwellings, reflecting its urban character. Bevois Valley is situated within the larger Southampton urban area, approximately 68 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Bevois Valley and Hampshire
AdBlue call-outs in Bevois Valley go to teams that cover the towns near it — Bevois Town, Bevois Mount as well as St Denys — and most of Hampshire beyond, across SO postcodes. Phone and ask rather than guess if you're by a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
Bevois Valley is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Bevois Valley: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, so not one fixed quote would be fair. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the car, since an open driveway is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight space behind Bashir Ahmed Masjid.
What went in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: each Bevois Valley enquiry begins by asking precisely those, before a figure, not after. Those answers shrink the range right down to a single number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Next to your car in Bevois Valley, right now?
In that case, do nothing — that's the most helpful step available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran is all we need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Hampshire, Bevois Valley included.