Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Drayton
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the motor off — and the ignition too. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. The harm begins once it's sucked through your pump — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Drayton, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before the motor has run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Drayton: the first few minutes
Do:
- So no one can switch your ignition on, pull the keys away.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting PO6 1, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: the engine remains off.
- Turning your key to ignition alone starts the pump going on many diesels. Skip it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch along Station Road.
- By the road, do not try draining it yourself.
On a forecourt around Drayton, whether it is the Sainsbury's or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle clear of the petrol pump. Parked on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. From a dedicated tank it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what the engine emits. Nothing in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of it was intended to go through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps separate instead of blending — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and collects underneath it — the same spot the intake draws from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, and that is why a car filled in Highbury yesterday and not switched on stays the straightforward case, provided nobody touches your key.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Drayton with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it's just in the tank, it doesn't. Water protects nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running past them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger issue?
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Shell, and the problem is thinned fuel. Mixed through the diesel and sitting unused, it's harmless for now; running your engine does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Crookhorn or the middle of Drayton.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever across Hampshire the car has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
Drayton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of motors place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. No one means it. It mostly takes place outside the house, from a bottle grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Solent Junior School. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Havant Road. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside The Drayton Tavern, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars see it the most — hire cars, new cars, fleet ones, and the spare car in a home with one of each fuels. Wherever you are around Drayton or the remainder of Hampshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Drayton?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via your filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each may appear, perhaps part way across Drayton or coming back from Drayton Park. No restarting to test: pull over when safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M27, under 3 miles from Drayton, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Hopping across Drayton to the car park by Drayton United Church is one matter; driving towards Portsmouth, under 5 miles away, is something else, since every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has run, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very rare if it's noticed quickly.
Drayton: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car remains put, whether that's a road near The Drayton Centre, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt in Drayton, and our van comes to it. Three answers decide the work, and so before anything else we ask what was put in, roughly the amount, plus whether your motor has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. Residue from AdBlue won't wash away unaided, so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. Next, the filter: flushed, or changed when it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of your car. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. The pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding your system with clean diesel comes at the end. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Cosham or on a driveway in Drayton. Before we leave, we check it is running correctly with clean diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Drayton, briefly
Drayton is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the coast and approximately 4 miles north of Portsmouth. Drayton lies close to neighbouring areas such as Cosham, Farlington, and Widley, and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Drayton is relatively low-lying, with an average elevation of around 11 metres above sea level. Drayton is also within commuting distance of London, being around 60 miles to the southwest of the capital.
AdBlue drains around Drayton and across Hampshire
Cosham, Farlington and Widley are among the places around Drayton that the same teams reach, together with much of Hampshire beyond, over the PO postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
No towing is needed. In Drayton, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your car is drained where it stands, be it on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Drayton: the cost of fixing it
Since the jobs vary, a single figure would not be honest. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight space behind South Road Church.
Ahead of a quote, never afterwards, each enquiry from Drayton opens with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. Their replies narrow a range down to a single figure.
The quote is given on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Drayton and still beside your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Drayton or anywhere around Hampshire.