AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Breach? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens until your engine sucks it round. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Breach. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Breach, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, which stops anyone switching the power on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our technicians will know.
- Our van finds you quickest with a postcode starting PO10 8, or just the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Shifting the car even a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Mountwood Road.
- Draining the tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
The staff on duty at any Breach filling station — the Esso among them — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A vehicle filled on a drive in Woodmancote overnight and not started since is the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once the engine turns, that's what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, every part it touches suffers for as long as it stays in there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting till morning in Breach makes it worse. In your tank only, waiting does nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Murco and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it's inside your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain through the following fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, and so watering it can't work. Hence the flush matters more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm here than almost any other mistake — in Nutbourne or the heart of Breach alike.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across West Sussex the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Breach: how it ends up there
Many motors put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two can look identical. Nobody means it. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Rushing, outside Southbourne Infant School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Kelsey Avenue. Otherwise, after dark outside The Travellers Joy, the vehicle gets topped up by a driver opening that flap the first time.
Hired motors, brand-new vehicles, company motors, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Keep it switched off: that's the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere in Breach or the remainder of West Sussex you happen to be.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Breach?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Via the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — with any running — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's how far it travels.
Expect lumpy running, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — returning from Southbourne Recreation Ground, say, or part way across Breach. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. Every start pulls more of it through.
Exit the A3(M), under 5 miles from Breach, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not driving on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so driving for Chichester, under 10 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Breach to the car park by Southbourne Village Hall. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it is spotted soon.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Breach: what it takes
A road beside Bourne Leisure Centre, a drive, a layby or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has stopped around Breach, our engineers travel to it. What went in, about the quantity, plus whether the motor has turned over: our engineers check first, because those shape the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after your tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not flush away by itself. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that clean diesel, then a check of the car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we turn up, provided the motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Last, the system is bled with fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside Southbourne or a drive in Breach, that is where we fire it up and you set off. The check before we leave is that it runs correctly on new diesel. As the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Breach and where it is
Breach is a small suburban area situated near the coast in West Sussex, with Breach being close to the cities of Chichester and Portsmouth. Breach has a population of around 3103 people and Breach is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Breach is located near other suburban areas such as Southbourne and Prinsted, and Breach sits at a low elevation of approximately 10 metres above sea level.
AdBlue drains around Breach and across West Sussex
AdBlue call-outs around Breach are passed to teams that cover the places near it — Southbourne, Inlands plus Prinsted — and most of West Sussex further out, across PO postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A van that comes to you fits Breach, a residential suburb: there's no need to take the car to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
Breach: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. What changes the cost is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Southbourne Library.
That's why each call from Breach starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it's run. With those replies, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our quote on the phone. And payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the car around Breach, still?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Breach or anywhere in West Sussex.