Church Crookham: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your engine. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The harm begins once it's sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Church Crookham. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Church Crookham: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so don't throw it away.
- Call just where you are. Quote a GU52 8 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Many diesels power their pump the moment your ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, and so it's pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way along Sandy Lane.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
Get the attendants to help you roll your vehicle off the island if you are on a forecourt around Church Crookham, whether it is the Esso or elsewhere. On the drive, the car remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the 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 supposed to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays apart instead of blending — entirely unlike fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Fleet last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
After it is sucked in, the damage comes in two forms. 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, so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting overnight around Church Crookham makes things worse. In your tank only, waiting costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a separate form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is in that tank it does no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is simply the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates back out — and the following tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Church Crookham or out in Pondtail, does more harm than nearly any other error.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere in Hampshire the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Church Crookham
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. Mostly it's not the forecourt: a driver buys a container heading home and tips it in at home.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Crookham Church of England Aided Infant School the refill is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Gally Hill Road. Else, after dark by The Wyvern, the vehicle gets refilled by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
The least known cars see it most — rentals, new ones, company cars, and the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels. Keep it switched off: that's the first response to the same mistake, anywhere around Church Crookham or the rest of Hampshire you happen to be.
Church Crookham: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It's been sucked through the fuel filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Maybe coming back from Soanes Copse, or part way across Church Crookham, the engine may go rough, smoke, drop power, flash the dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M3, under 3 miles from Church Crookham, at the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That's why a hop across Church Crookham to park near Crookham War Memorial Hall and a drive of under 25 miles for Winchester are such separate jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to flush once your engine has run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it is caught quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Church Crookham
A road by Willis Hall, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the car has come to rest around Church Crookham, our engineers come to it. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and if the engine has been run: we ask before all else, since those decide the job.
Then the tank is emptied where your car waits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. A test of the car follows at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter is cleaned or, if needed, swapped. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Bleeding your system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it's a parking space at Fleet or a drive around Church Crookham, that is where our engineers fire it up and you head off. The test before we go is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. As the job is done in full where the car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Church Crookham itself
Church Crookham is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated approximately 35 miles from London and 25 miles from Winchester. Church Crookham has a population of around 5880 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Church Crookham sits inland, with nearby places including Ridgeway Parade, Crookham Village, and Ewshot, and has an elevation of around 98 metres.
Church Crookham and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Church Crookham go to vans that cover the towns around it — Ridgeway Parade, Crookham Village as well as Ewshot — and much of Hampshire beyond, across GU postcodes. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
No moving is needed. In Church Crookham, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: your car is drained on the spot, be it in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
Church Crookham: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, and so not one single price is fair. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind Joan Blundell 1914-1999.
What went in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: each Church Crookham enquiry opens by asking precisely that, before a quote, never afterwards. Those replies shrink the range down to a single number.
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. Check your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to your car in Church Crookham?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Church Crookham or anywhere across Hampshire.