Clayhall: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your motor off and keep the ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The harm starts once it is pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the car sits around Clayhall. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Clayhall, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Give us a postcode starting PO12 2, or whatever street is closest, and the van finds you directly — so ring from wherever you are.
Don't do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: your motor stays off.
- Turning the key to ignition alone sets the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Do not top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short stretch down Clayhall Road is too far to drive the car.
- Don't try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
On a forecourt around Clayhall, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll your car clear of the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. Nothing inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is why a vehicle topped up in Alverstoke last night and not switched on stays the simple case, provided no one turns the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps running on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle sitting in Clayhall. Only in that tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a separate kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on another forecourt nearby's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that is the main fault. Blended into your diesel and sitting still, it is harmless for now; using your motor is the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, since it does not burn. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Old Portsmouth or the middle of Clayhall.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Hampshire your car is standing.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Clayhall?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Usually it's not the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Haselworth Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Fort Road. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside The Fighting Cocks, and someone using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it the most — rentals, new ones, fleet ones, and the other vehicle of a home with both fuels. Wherever you are in Clayhall or the rest of Hampshire, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Clayhall, and the engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. It has been drawn through your filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Maybe returning from Gosport Park, or part way across Clayhall, the engine may run rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. No restarting to check: pull over once safe, then turn it off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M275, under 3 miles from Clayhall, by the next junction and stop safely, not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Clayhall to the car park by St Francis is a very different job from a run towards Portsmouth, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to clean out once the engine has been started, and we do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it's noticed quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Clayhall
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a road near St Luke's Church, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Clayhall, and the van travels to it. Which fluid went in, about how much, plus whether the engine has turned over: we ask before all else, because those shape the work.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through since residue won't flush out unaided. Testing your car comes at the end, once clean diesel goes in and your filter gets flushed or, if necessary, swapped. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians are there. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The last step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. Then our technicians start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay by Portsmouth Harbour or a driveway in Clayhall. Before we leave, our technicians make sure it is running correctly with clean diesel in. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Clayhall itself
Clayhall is a small suburban area situated on the coast of Hampshire, with an elevation of approximately 2 metres above sea level. Clayhall lies close to the city of Portsmouth, being only 2 miles away, and is near other places such as Seafield, Newtown, and Gosport. Clayhall has a population of around 1799 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Clayhall is also located within the South East region of England, about 66 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Clayhall included
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls in Clayhall also cover the locations around it, Seafield, Newtown and Gosport among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the PO postcode area. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Clayhall is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Clayhall: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the callouts vary, a single price would not be fair. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and then where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight spot behind HMS Eurydice.
Before a figure, never afterwards, each call from Clayhall opens with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you are told the price on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Next to your car in Clayhall, still?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Clayhall or anywhere in Hampshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.