Broad Oak: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the engine. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens till your motor 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 Broad Oak. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Broad Oak
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents anyone turning the power on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it away.
- Ring just where you are. Say a RG29 1 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is pointless.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way up Broad Oak Lane.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
At a forecourt in Broad Oak, whether it's the Texaco or another one, ask the staff to help you push your car clear of the pump. On that drive, your car stays just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your motor. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate instead of blending — entirely different from fuel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same spot the pickup draws from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in North Warnborough 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.
Once it's drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and tiny passages; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle parked around Broad Oak. Only inside that tank, it stays stable. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the components that need it the most — the injection pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the main problem. Mixed into your diesel and left unused, it's harmless at that stage; running your engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through is not an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits back out — and the next tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Broad Oak or out in Rye Common, does more harm than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Hampshire your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Broad Oak: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars waits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside Mayhill Junior School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills your car. After work, a container goes in on a driveway close to A287. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Waterwitch, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars see it most — rentals, new ones, fleet ones, and the spare car of a home with both fuel types. Wherever in Hampshire, Broad Oak included, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Broad Oak, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Odiham Common, perhaps, or midway across Broad Oak. Once you safely can, pull over and turn it off — without turning it on again to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M3, under 3 miles from Broad Oak, by the next junction and stop safely, not driving on.
Hopping across Broad Oak to the car park by Pillar's Bridge is one thing; heading towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, is another, since every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has ended up, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Permanent damage is very rare when it is noticed early.
Broad Oak: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Broad Oak: a side street near Stocks, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, so before anything else we ask which fluid went in, about what quantity, plus if the engine has run.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. A full flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not clear away on its own. A test of your car comes at the end, once fresh diesel is added and your filter gets flushed or, where necessary, swapped. Not run? Then expect roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. At that point our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay by Winchfield or a driveway in Broad Oak. It's tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. The entire job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Broad Oak, briefly
Broad Oak is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Hampshire, with Colt Hill and Odiham nearby. Broad Oak sits at an elevation of around 85 metres, close to the village of Potbridge and approximately 21.7 miles from the city of Winchester. Broad Oak has a population of around 506 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Broad Oak is also within commuting distance of London, being around 38.3 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Broad Oak included
AdBlue jobs around Broad Oak go to vans that serve the places near it — Colt Hill, Odiham as well as Potbridge — and much of Hampshire beyond, across RG postcodes. Close to a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
A van that comes to you fits Broad Oak, a rural hamlet: you have no need to take your car to us, because our technicians empty it there, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Broad Oak
There's no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. What moves the price is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Church of the All Saints.
For that in mind, every call from Broad Oak opens with the identical trio — what went in, how much, whether it ran — before a figure. Once those are known, a range becomes a single firm figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear the price on the phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Next to the vehicle in Broad Oak, right now?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Broad Oak or wherever within Hampshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether it ran.