Darby Green: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Darby Green, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has run. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Darby Green, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting GU17 0, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move the car.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's wasted.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short distance along Darby Green Lane.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Rolling the car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Darby Green forecourt you are on, the Esso included. On the drive, your car stays exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same spot the pickup sucks from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Yateley overnight and not started since counts as the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though when your engine runs, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it touches till it's cleared from your system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. A motor left standing around Darby Green with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel running past them, so the water content damages them by itself.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that's the whole problem. No harm is done while it stays put, mixed into the diesel — only once the motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so thinning it won't work. Hence the flush counts so much, and turning the key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Blackwater or the centre of Darby Green equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Hampshire your vehicle has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Darby Green: how it ends up there
Many motors place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two can appear identical. No one intends it. Mostly it's not the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle heading home and pours it in outside the house.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Potley Hill Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. A driver pours the bottle in outside their house, right off Sydney Loader Place, as the day ends. Else, after dark outside The White Swan, the car is refilled by a driver opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that is the first step to an identical slip, anywhere around Darby Green or the rest of Hampshire you are.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Darby Green, and your engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Darby Green Playing Fields or halfway across Darby Green. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the M3, under 3 miles from Darby Green, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That is why a hop across Darby Green to park near The Darby Green Centre and a drive of under 50 miles towards Winchester are such different jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to rinse out once the engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it's spotted early.
Darby Green: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Anywhere it has stopped in Darby Green — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a street by Burrell Lodge — the van travels to your vehicle. What got in, roughly the quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over: we ask before all else, because those decide the work.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. A test of your vehicle comes last, once fresh diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, if needed, replaced. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where your car is parked, by Sandhurst or on a driveway around Darby Green. The test before our engineers head off is that it runs properly on fresh diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Darby Green and where it is
Darby Green is a locality in Hampshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 63 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Darby Green lies near the villages of Frogmore and Cricket Hill, and is also close to Sandhurst. Darby Green is located approximately 31 miles from London and 29 miles from the city of Winchester, making it a commuter-friendly area. Darby Green has a population of around 1849 residents.
Darby Green and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the GU postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue call-outs around Darby Green serve much of Hampshire too, Frogmore, Cricket Hill and Sandhurst among them. Ring and check instead of guessing when you are by a border, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Wherever the car sits — your drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Darby Green, a small village, well.
Darby Green: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Three things move the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Frogmore Leisure Centre.
Before a figure, not after, each enquiry from Darby Green begins with three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and whether it ran. With those replies, a range shrinks to one firm figure.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your policy while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Beside your car in Darby Green, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best move you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Darby Green or wherever within Hampshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if it ran.