Blashford: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the system pulls it in. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Blashford. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Blashford: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call right where you are. Quote a BH24 3 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Never do these:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance down Woolmer Lane.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move your vehicle off the island if you are on a forecourt around Blashford, whether it's the Esso or elsewhere. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same spot the intake sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Ellingham last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left sitting around Blashford with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a separate kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the main issue. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Rockford or the middle of Blashford.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere across Hampshire the car has stopped.
Blashford: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. A container picked up while driving home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the typical route.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Poulner Junior School the top-up is hurried. Someone tips the container in outside their house, right off Snails Lane, as the day ends. Else, in dim light outside The White Hart, the vehicle is topped up by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new motor, a fleet motor, or the other car in a home with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers use least. Leave it off: that's the first response to the same slip, anywhere in Blashford or the remainder of Hampshire you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Blashford?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Via your filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is where it travels.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each may appear, maybe part way across Blashford or coming back from Lifeland Copse. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M27, under 10 miles from Blashford, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Hopping across Blashford to the car park by Badger is one thing; heading towards Salisbury, under 15 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the rinsing where the car has stopped, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Long-term damage is very unusual if it's caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Blashford?
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Blashford: a side street close to Carvers Clubhouse, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the job, and so before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, about the amount, plus if the engine has run.
Then your tank is drained where your car stands, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since what remains won't flush out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then your car is tested. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Quiet enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. Whether it's a parking bay at Hinton Admiral or a driveway around Blashford, that is where our engineers start the car and you set off. The check before we head off is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Blashford and where it is
Blashford is a small village situated on the shores of Blashford Lakes in Hampshire, with a low elevation of around 24 metres. Blashford lies near the villages of North Poulner and Poulner, and is close to the market town of Ringwood. Blashford has a population of approximately 541 residents, who mostly live in detached houses. Blashford is located near the city of Salisbury, which is about 14.6 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Blashford included
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Blashford also cover the spots round it, North Poulner, Poulner and Ringwood among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the BH postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Wherever the vehicle stands — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a filling station — we drain it on the spot, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Blashford, a village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Blashford: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs differ, a single figure would not be fair. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that was put in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Doctor Little Gardens.
With that in mind, each enquiry from Blashford begins by asking the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, if the engine ran — before a quote. With those replies, the range shrinks to a single firm figure.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your policy while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Still alongside your car in Blashford?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best move you can do. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if it ran are all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Hampshire, Blashford included.