Bitterne Manor: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and the ignition too. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens till your motor pulls it through. In Bitterne Manor, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bitterne Manor: the first few minutes
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the product and the amount, so don't throw it away.
- Ring just where you are. Say a SO18 1 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Rampart Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll the car away from the island if you're on a forecourt around Bitterne Manor, whether it's the BP or somewhere else. On that drive, your car remains just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Stored in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays apart rather than blending — quite different from fuel. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools low where the pickup takes its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bevois Town last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
Once it's sucked in, the damage takes two forms. It attacks some metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches till it is removed from your system. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning in Bitterne Manor makes things worse. Inside your tank only, time does nothing. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside your tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the following fill won't clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Bitterne Manor or out in Portswood, does more harm than nearly any other error.
As with petrol, there's good news. Wherever around Hampshire the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to clear.
Bitterne Manor: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs invite it. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Bitterne Manor Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills your car. Someone pours the bottle in at home, just off Quayside Road, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills the car in dim light, stopped in the car park outside The Station.
The least familiar cars see it most — hire cars, new ones, company cars, and the other car of a home with one of each fuels. Same mistake, same first step — leave it switched off — wherever you are in Bitterne Manor or the rest of Hampshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Bitterne Manor?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Maybe coming back from Chessel Bay Local Nature Reserve, or midway across Bitterne Manor, the engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. No restarting to check: stop once safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M27, under 3 miles from Bitterne Manor, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Bitterne Manor to the car park by Bitterne Manor Community Centre is a very different job from a run towards Southampton, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where the car has stopped, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Bitterne Manor
A street beside a street just off the centre, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever the car has stopped in Bitterne Manor, we come to it. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over: we ask before all else, because those decide the job.
Then that tank is cleared where the vehicle stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains will not clear out by itself. A test of your car follows last, once clean diesel is added and the fuel filter is flushed or, if needed, swapped. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no fault, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes last. You drive off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive in Bitterne Manor or in a space by Bitterne. Before we leave, we make sure it is running properly with fresh diesel in. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Bitterne Manor
Bitterne Manor is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Southampton and close to the neighbouring areas of St Denys, Northam, and Bevois Valley. Bitterne Manor is characterized by its low elevation of around 2 metres above sea level and its predominantly flat-type housing. Bitterne Manor is home to a population of approximately 4819 residents, who live in close proximity to the amenities and services of Southampton. Bitterne Manor is located about 67.8 miles south-west of London, making it a commuter hub for those working in the capital.
Bitterne Manor and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in Bitterne Manor go to teams that serve the places near it — St Denys, Northam as well as Bevois Valley — and most of Hampshire beyond, across SO postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Bitterne Manor is a residential suburb, and a mobile 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 is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Bitterne Manor: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the jobs vary, a single price would not be fair. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is easier for a van to get to safely than a tight space behind Cobbett Road Library.
That's why every call from Bitterne Manor starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Those replies narrow the range down to one number.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. While our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Bitterne Manor: still alongside the vehicle?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the best move available. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Bitterne Manor or anywhere in Hampshire.