AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Burghfield Common? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage only starts once your pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Burghfield Common, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Burghfield Common, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, pull the keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Give us a postcode starting RG7 3, or whatever street is nearest, and our van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave it off.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's pointless.
- Keep it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Boldrewood.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
On a forecourt in Burghfield Common, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car away from the pump. At your own drive, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Stored in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to clean the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the same place the pickup sucks from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Ufton Nervet last night and has not been started since. The liquid sits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it will be first through once your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the components it reaches for as long as it remains there. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car sitting in Burghfield Common. Only inside the tank, it stays stable. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing through them, so the water part damages them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the BP, and the problem is diluted fuel. No harm comes while it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only when the engine works on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable liquid. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates again — and the next fill won't rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Burghfield Common or out in Goddards Green, costs more than almost any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Wherever in Berkshire your vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest bit of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Burghfield Common
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. It usually occurs outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, rather than at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Mrs Bland's Infant School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway near School Lane. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your car in dim light, stopped in the car park by the pub in the village.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around Burghfield Common or the remainder of Berkshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Burghfield Common: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Through the filter, along the lines, and — with any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Maybe returning from The Recreation Ground, or part way across Burghfield Common, the motor might run rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. Once you safely can, pull over then switch it off — without restarting to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M4, under 3 miles from Burghfield Common, at the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
A quick hop across Burghfield Common to the car park by Burghfield Library is one thing; driving towards Winchester, under 50 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the motor has been run. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it's noticed soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Burghfield Common
A road by Burghfield Common Village Hall, a drive, a layby or a filling station: anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in Burghfield Common, we come to it. What got in, about the quantity, and if the motor has turned over: our engineers check before all else, because those shape the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when that tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since residue will not flush away by itself. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The equipment is explosion-proof, so a busy forecourt is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. After that our technicians start it and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Mortimer or a drive around Burghfield Common. It's checked on new diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Burghfield Common
Burghfield Common is a village in Berkshire, situated on the banks of the River Kennet at an elevation of around 96 metres. Burghfield Common lies within the South East region of England, approximately 41 miles west of London and 25 miles east of Winchester. Burghfield Common is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock and is surrounded by nearby places such as Sulhamstead Abbots and Burghfield Hill.
AdBlue drains in Burghfield Common and across Berkshire
The vans that answer AdBlue calls in Burghfield Common also cover the places around it, Sulhamstead Abbots, Burghfield Hill and Four Houses Corner among them, and most of Berkshire beyond, across the RG postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Asking is better than guessing, so ring.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — our engineers empty it there, with no need to take it to us; that suits Burghfield Common, a village, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Burghfield Common
Every job is different, so no fixed price would be honest. What changes the price is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Methodist Church.
What went in, what quantity, plus if the engine ran: each Burghfield Common enquiry begins by asking precisely those, ahead of a quote, never after. Once they are known, a range becomes one firm figure.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Still next to the vehicle in Burghfield Common?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful thing you can do. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Burghfield Common or anywhere across Berkshire.