Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Flexford
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and your ignition too. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system draws it in. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly cleaned where your car stands around Flexford. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Flexford, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting GU3 2, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move your car.
- Many diesels run their pump the instant your ignition goes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel won't thin it.
- Even a short distance along The Paddocks is too far to drive the vehicle.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
Get the attendants to help you move the vehicle away from the island if you are at a forecourt around Flexford, whether it is the JET or somewhere else. At home, the car stays exactly as it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of the tank, and that's exactly where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Puttenham 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 sucked it in.
Two kinds of damage come from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, attacking whatever it touches till it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow channels. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting overnight in Flexford leaves things worse. Inside your tank only, waiting costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Esso's forecourt makes your fuel thin — that is the whole problem. No harm comes while it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits again — and the next fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Flexford or out in Wyke, does more harm than nearly any other error.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on any fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever in Surrey the car sits.
Flexford: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap — can appear the same. No one means it; plenty of designs invite it. A container picked up while heading home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Normandy Village School the refill is hurried. A driver tips the container in outside their house, just off Glaziers Lane, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside the pub in the village, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company car, or the other car of a family with both fuel types — the vehicles drivers know least. Leave it off: that's the first response to the same mistake, wherever around Flexford or the remainder of Surrey you are.
Flexford: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, after passing via your filter and lines.
You may see your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Pussey's Copse or halfway across Flexford. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the car off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Flexford sits under 10 miles from the M3; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Hopping across Flexford to the car park by Emmanuel United Reformed Church is one matter; heading for Chichester, under 50 miles away, is another, because every mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very unusual if it's noticed soon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Flexford: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped around Flexford — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a street by Normandy Village Hall — the van comes to the car. What got in, about the quantity, and whether your motor has been run: our technicians ask before all else, because those shape the job.
Next, draining your tank right there takes out the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than after petrol, because residue will not clear away on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians arrive, if your engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the final step. At that point our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay by Wanborough or a drive in Flexford. It is tested on clean diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our technicians leave. The whole job is done where your car is, so it never needs to be taken to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Flexford, for a moment
Flexford is a small village in Surrey, situated inland at an elevation of around 61 metres. Flexford lies near the villages of Normandy, Wanborough, and Willey Green, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Flexford is located approximately 29.6 miles from London and 28.5 miles from Chichester, making it a rural community with some commuting links to larger cities. Flexford has a population of around 580 residents, giving it a quiet and intimate atmosphere.
Flexford and Surrey: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Flexford also cover the spots round it, Normandy, Wanborough and Willey Green among them, and most of Surrey beyond, across the GU postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
A van that comes to you suits Flexford, a rural village: you have no need to take your car to us, because our engineers empty it on the spot, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Flexford?
Not one flat figure would be honest, because every job differs. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind The Great Barn of Wanborough.
Ahead of any quote, not afterwards, every enquiry from Flexford opens with three checks: the liquid, the amount, plus whether it ran. Those answers narrow the range right down to one figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In Flexford and still beside the vehicle?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Flexford or anywhere within Surrey, after you call 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran.