AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Catisfield? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts until your motor sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Catisfield, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your motor has been run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Catisfield: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting PO15 5, or whatever street lies closest, and the van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Switching the key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way up South Lodge is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
The attendants on duty at any Catisfield filling station — the Texaco included — will usually lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of your tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle filled on a driveway in West End yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though when the motor turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that hardens in filters and narrow passages; and, since it eats at certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it remains in there. A motor left sitting around Catisfield with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a second form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Shell, and this problem is thinned fuel. Damage just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside the tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether the car sits in Titchfield Park or the heart of Catisfield, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Wherever in Hampshire your car has come to rest, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue yet in the tank: the simplest bit of any fuel system to empty.
Catisfield: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. It mostly occurs at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
Usually, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Ranvilles Junior School the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Hunters Lodge. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Titchfield Mill, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — hire cars, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare vehicle of a family with both fuels. Same slip, same first step — keep it off — wherever you happen to be in Catisfield or the remainder of Hampshire.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Catisfield, and your engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — coming back from The Den, say, or part way across Catisfield. Once you safely can, pull over and switch it off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M27, under 3 miles from Catisfield, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Mileage matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so heading towards Portsmouth, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than crossing Catisfield to the car park by Ranvilles Community Centre. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. When it is spotted early, permanent damage is very uncommon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Catisfield: what it takes
The car stays put, whether that is a road near Saint Peter's Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Catisfield, and our van travels to it. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers get before all else — what got in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
Next, draining your tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. The system is rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the filter: flushed, or replaced if it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of your vehicle. Engine not run? Then expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. At that point we start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay outside Fareham or a driveway in Catisfield. The check before our technicians head off is that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Catisfield, for a moment
Catisfield is a suburban area located on the coast of Hampshire, with an elevation of 33 metres above sea level. Catisfield sits near the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton, and is close to nearby places such as Heathfield, Titchfield, and Hill Park. Catisfield has a population of approximately 4373 people, and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Catisfield is situated about 65.6 miles from London, making it a commuter option for those working in the capital.
AdBlue drains around Catisfield and across Hampshire
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Catisfield also cover the locations about it, Heathfield, Titchfield and Hill Park among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the PO postcode area. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Catisfield is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Catisfield
Since the jobs vary, a flat price wouldn't be honest. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Titchfield Community Centre.
Ahead of any figure, never after, every call from Catisfield opens with the same three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. While the van is on the way, dig out your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Next to your car in Catisfield, right now?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Catisfield or anywhere within Hampshire.