East Wittering: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep the engine off and leave the ignition off. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The harm begins once it's pulled through the pump — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in East Wittering. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
East Wittering, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
To do:
- Remove your keys, which prevents someone turning the power on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PO20 8, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Don't do these:
- Moving the vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Even a short distance along Shore Road is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any East Wittering forecourt — the Shell among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On the drive, the vehicle remains just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools low where the pickup draws its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Somerley last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches until it is removed from the system. And once the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow channels. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning around East Wittering leaves it worse. Inside the tank only, waiting does nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water part damages them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Rookwood or the middle of East Wittering.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside your tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, wherever your car has stopped around West Sussex.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in East Wittering
It is not deliberate. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. It mostly takes place outside the house, from a container bought en route home, not at the filling station.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside East Wittering Community Primary School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Northern Crescent. Another version: dim light, a pub car park outside The Shore Inn, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
The least known cars get it the most — hire cars, new cars, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a family with one of each fuel types. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in East Wittering or the rest of West Sussex you are.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around East Wittering?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, maybe part way across East Wittering or coming back from West Wittering Cricket Club. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
On the Waterlooville Bypass, under 10 miles from East Wittering, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
A quick hop across East Wittering to the car park by Wittering Walk is one thing; driving towards Chichester, under 10 miles away, is something else, since every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has stopped, and once the engine has been started there is more of it. Noticed quickly, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in East Wittering: what it takes
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in East Wittering: a side street close to Wittering Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid went in, roughly the quantity, plus whether the motor has been run: we ask first, since those shape the job.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed right through since what remains will not flush out unaided. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with fresh diesel. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, by Bosham or on a driveway around East Wittering. The check before we go is that it runs properly on new diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About East Wittering, for a moment
East Wittering is a coastal village in West Sussex, situated near the mouth of Chichester Harbour and close to the South Downs National Park. East Wittering has a population of around 2156 people and is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock. East Wittering sits at a low elevation of approximately 3 metres above sea level, making it a popular spot for those who enjoy coastal walks and water sports. East Wittering is also near to other villages such as West Wittering and Bracklesham.
AdBlue drains across East Wittering and West Sussex
AdBlue jobs in East Wittering are passed to teams that serve the places around it — West Wittering, Bracklesham as well as Earnley — and much of West Sussex further out, throughout PO postcodes. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A van that comes to you suits East Wittering, a coastal village: you have no need to bring your car to us, because our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in East Wittering
Not one flat price could be fair, because each job is different. Three things shift 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 driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind St Anne.
With that reason, each enquiry from East Wittering begins by asking the same trio — what got in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before a figure. Their answers narrow a range right down to one figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Beside your car around East Wittering, right now?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in East Wittering or wherever within West Sussex.