Boscombe: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage only starts once the pump begins pulling it. In Boscombe, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Boscombe: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call right where you are. Quote a BH5 1 postcode or the nearest street name, and nobody has to search for you.
Never:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Even a short way down Windsor Road is too far to drive it.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it yourself.
The attendants working at any Boscombe forecourt — the Esso included — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. At home, your car stays just where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Littledown last night and has not been started since. The AdBlue waits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it would be first through if the engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; and, because it attacks some metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, leaving it till morning around Boscombe leaves it worse. In your tank alone, time does nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a second form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that's the whole fault. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether the vehicle is in West Southbourne or the heart of Boscombe, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever around Dorset the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of any fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Boscombe: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. The refill gets rushed outside St Clement's and St John's Church of England Infant School, because the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken off. Near Westby Road, a driver tips a container in at home after work. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside Lynton Court, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It occurs most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere in Dorset, Boscombe as well, the slip doesn't change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Boscombe?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. It's been pulled through your filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors.
You may see the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from The Orchard Garden or halfway across Boscombe. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M27, under 25 miles from Boscombe, at the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Boscombe to the car park by Vessel is a very different job from a run towards Southampton, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once your engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is noticed early.
Boscombe: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Boscombe: a side street near 'Wings' (now moved), a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, and if your motor has been run: our engineers ask before all else, because those shape the work.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't clear away on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, if your engine has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed your system on clean diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive around Boscombe or in a bay at Pokesdown. It's tested on new diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our engineers go. As the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Boscombe itself
Boscombe is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the towns of Springbourne and Pokesdown. Boscombe sits at an elevation of 39 metres, overlooking the sea and forming part of the larger Bournemouth conurbation. Boscombe is characterized by its predominantly flat-type housing and a population of around 13180 residents. Boscombe is located near East Cliff, with Southampton approximately 22.7 miles away and London around 91.9 miles to the northeast.
AdBlue drains in Boscombe and across Dorset
AdBlue call-outs around Boscombe go to teams that serve the towns near it — Springbourne, Pokesdown as well as East Cliff — and most of Dorset beyond, across BH postcodes. Assuming doesn't help by a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Boscombe, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the car to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Boscombe
Because the jobs vary, a flat figure would not be fair. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, since an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Boscombe Police Box.
Ahead of any quote, never after, each enquiry from Boscombe begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Next to your car around Boscombe, right now?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Boscombe or wherever in Dorset.