AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ewelme? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep the ignition off. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts till the motor pulls it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Ewelme, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Ewelme
To do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a OX10 6 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Don't:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: the motor stays off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way up The Street.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
At a forecourt in Ewelme, whether it is the BP or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On that drive, the car stays exactly as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its supply from. A car topped up on a drive in Upperton overnight and left unstarted counts as the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once your motor runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
After it's sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. A motor left sitting in Ewelme with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and this problem is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It does not burn, so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the following fill will not rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and trying your engine "to see", in the heart of Ewelme or out in Preston Crowmarsh, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Oxfordshire the car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Ewelme: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap — can look the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of layouts allow it. Usually it's not the forecourt: someone picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. The refill gets hurried outside Ewelme CofE Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken off. Someone tips the bottle in at home, right off Parson's Lane, as the day ends. Else, in dim light by Shepherd's Hut, your car is topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, anywhere around Ewelme or the remainder of Oxfordshire you happen to be.
Ewelme: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked along, and some running takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Perhaps coming back from Ewelme Watercress Beds & Local Nature Reserve, or midway across Ewelme, your motor might go lumpy, smoke, lose pace, light up the dash or cut out. Once you safely can, pull over and switch everything off — without restarting to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Ewelme sits under 10 miles from the M40; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
Hopping across Ewelme to the car park by Ewelme Village Hall is one thing; heading for Oxford, under 15 miles away, is something else, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
We do all of the flushing where your car has stopped, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Long-term damage is very uncommon if it is noticed quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Ewelme
A road by Saint Mary the Virgin, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has stopped around Ewelme, our engineers come to it. Three answers decide the work, and so first our engineers ask which fluid got in, roughly the amount, and whether the engine has turned over.
Next, draining that tank on the spot takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. A test of the vehicle comes at the end, after clean diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, where needed, replaced. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided the motor has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the last step. Whether it is a parking space at Cholsey or a drive in Ewelme, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. The check before our technicians leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Ewelme and where it is
Ewelme is a small village in south Oxfordshire, situated near the River Thames and close to the villages of Benson and Roke. Ewelme sits in a low-lying area at an elevation of around 81 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Ewelme is located approximately 12 miles south of Oxford and 41 miles west of London, making it a rural community within commuting distance of these cities.
AdBlue drains around Ewelme and across Oxfordshire
AdBlue call-outs in Ewelme are passed to vans that cover the places near it — Benson, Roke plus Rokemarsh — and most of Oxfordshire further out, throughout OX postcodes. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
Wherever your vehicle stands — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our engineers drain it on the spot, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Ewelme, a rural village, well.
Ewelme: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job is different, so no fixed price is fair. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight spot behind Ewelme War Memorial.
For that in mind, every call from Ewelme opens with the identical trio — which fluid went in, what quantity, whether it ran — before a quote. Their replies shrink a range right down to a single figure.
Our quote is given on the call, before a van leaves; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Beside the car around Ewelme, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the most useful move you can do. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Ewelme or wherever in Oxfordshire, after you call 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran.