Durlston: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully flushed where the car sits in Durlston. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Durlston, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, take the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BH19 2, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Shifting your vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up your engine.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not blend, so it is wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short distance up Durlston Road.
- Emptying that tank on your own by the road is not worth trying.
On a forecourt in Durlston, whether it is the Texaco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor emits. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. The pickup takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue ends up: being denser than diesel, it sinks. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Coombe overnight and has not turned since. The liquid sits at the base of that tank, undrawn — but it will be the first thing through if your motor starts, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It attacks certain metals found in fuel components, working on any part it touches until it is cleared from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. Overnight, a car sitting around Durlston with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is just in that tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a separate form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger problem?
Petrol pumped into a diesel on BP's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the whole issue. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car sits in Ulwell or the heart of Durlston, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not stay blended, so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere across Dorset your vehicle has stopped.
Durlston: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many motors place the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then under one flap, and after dark the two can look the same. Nobody means it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. The top-up is hurried outside Swanage Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Belle Vue Road. One more pattern: darkness, the car park by White Horse, and someone 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 motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical slip, an identical first step — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be around Durlston or the remainder of Dorset.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Durlston?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through your filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may notice your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Townsend Reserve or halfway across Durlston. When safe, pull over and turn everything off — without restarting to see. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M27, under 50 miles from Durlston, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why crossing Durlston to park beside Amphitheatre and a drive of under 50 miles towards Southampton are very separate jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to flush once your engine has been started, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Durlston?
A road by Prince Albert Memorial, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever the car has come to rest around Durlston, our technicians come to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and if the motor has run, since those answers decide this work.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. Residue from AdBlue will not flush away unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where your engine has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. You head off as soon as our technicians have started the car, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive around Durlston or in a space by Poole. The check before we leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Durlston and where it is
Durlston is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the towns of Swanage and Herston, with Durlston being a popular residential location due to its scenic views. Durlston sits at an elevation of 47 metres, overlooking the sea, and Durlston is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Durlston is located approximately 31.9 miles from Southampton and Durlston is part of the larger South West region of England.
Durlston and Dorset: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs around Durlston are passed to vans that cover the towns near it — Swanage, Herston as well as New Swanage — and most of Dorset further out, throughout BH postcodes. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
A van that comes to you suits Durlston, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the car to us, because we drain it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Durlston: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Whether your engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the location of the car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to reach safely than a tight gap behind Swanage Museum & Heritage Centre.
With that in mind, each enquiry from Durlston opens with the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before any figure. Once they are known, a range turns into one firm figure.
Our quote is given during the call, before anyone sets off; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Durlston: still alongside the car?
Not touching your car is, then, the best thing you can do. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Durlston or wherever in Dorset, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.