Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hatch Warren
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If your motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly flushed where your car sits around Hatch Warren. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Hatch Warren: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the quantity, and so don't throw it out.
- The van locates you quickest with a postcode starting RG22 4, or just the name of a street close by, and so phone from the car.
Don't:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine stays off.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is pointless.
- Even a short stretch down Woodbury Road is too far to drive it.
- Draining the tank on your own beside the road isn't worth trying.
The attendants working at any Hatch Warren filling station — the Sainsbury's among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it stays exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the gas. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — entirely different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath your diesel, which is how a vehicle filled in Foxhall yesterday and never switched on stays the straightforward one, provided nobody touches the key.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on till it's cleared out. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Hatch Warren with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it is just in the tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a second kind of harm.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. It mixes with the diesel, and while it's in that tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether your vehicle sits in Farleigh Wallop or the heart of Hatch Warren, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not stay blended, and so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Hampshire the car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Hatch Warren
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — may look the same. No one intends it; many designs invite it. A bottle picked up when driving home and tipped in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. The top-up gets rushed outside St Mark's Church of England Primary School, after the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Heritage Park. Another version: darkness, the car park by The Holly Blue, and someone using that flap the first time.
It comes up most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the spare motor of a family with both fuels — the cars drivers know least. Leave it off: that is the first response to the same mistake, wherever around Hatch Warren or the remainder of Hampshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Hatch Warren, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might appear, perhaps part way across Hatch Warren or coming back from Hatch Warren Playing Fields. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M3, under a mile from Hatch Warren, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so heading for Winchester, under 15 miles away, makes a far bigger job than hopping across Hatch Warren to the car park by Hatch Warren Community Centre. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to flush once the engine has been started, and we do all of it where the car has stopped. Spotted quickly, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Hatch Warren
The vehicle remains where it is, whether that is a road near Beggarwood Ampitheatre, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Hatch Warren, and our van travels to it. Three replies decide the job, so first our engineers ask which fluid was put in, roughly the amount, and if the engine has turned over.
Then your tank is drained where your car stands, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not wash out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Lastly, your system is primed with fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space outside Basingstoke or a driveway around Hatch Warren, that is where our technicians fire it up and you drive off. We make sure it runs properly on clean diesel before we leave. Our engineers do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About Hatch Warren itself
Hatch Warren is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 145 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Hatch Warren lies approximately 14 miles from Winchester and 47 miles from London, placing it within the wider South East England region. Hatch Warren is surrounded by other suburban areas, including Broadmere, Brighton Hill, and Kempshott, and has a population of around 5234 residents. Hatch Warren has a mix of local amenities and residential streets, characteristic of many suburban areas in the region.
Hatch Warren and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the RG postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Hatch Warren serve most of Hampshire too, Broadmere, Brighton Hill and Kempshott among them. Ring and check instead of guessing when you are by a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Hatch Warren is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Hatch Warren: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, so no fixed price is fair. Three things shift the cost: whether the motor has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind Beggarwood Community Centre.
What went in, how much, and if the engine ran: each Hatch Warren enquiry opens by asking exactly those, ahead of any figure, never after. Those replies narrow the range down to one figure.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the quote by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance whilst we're on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
Alongside the vehicle around Hatch Warren, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best thing open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Hatch Warren or anywhere within Hampshire.