Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hempton Wainhill
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the motor. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts until your engine sucks it round. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and carefully cleaned where your car stands in Hempton Wainhill. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hempton Wainhill: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take the keys out.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so don't bin it away.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting OX39 4, or simply the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Never:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift the car.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Hernes Oak.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
On a forecourt around Hempton Wainhill, whether it is the The Co-operative or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the pump. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and none of it was intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its fuel from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Until then it waits beneath your diesel, which is why a vehicle topped up in Henton yesterday and not switched on remains the simple case, provided no one touches your key.
Once it's sucked in, the damage 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 labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight around Hempton Wainhill leaves it worse. In the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a problem of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting inside that tank, it does none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Crystals and corrosion remain through the following tankful, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, so thinning it won't help. That is why the flush matters more, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Oakley or the centre of Hempton Wainhill alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest part on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Oxfordshire the vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Hempton Wainhill?
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — can look the same. No one means it; many layouts allow it. A container picked up when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The refill is rushed outside St Andrew's Church of England Primary School, Chinnor, because the dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped off. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Braken Road. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Lions Of Bledlow, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, brand-new cars, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least known cars get it most. Leave it switched off: that is the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Hempton Wainhill or the remainder of Oxfordshire you happen to be.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hempton Wainhill?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — returning from Chinnor Hill Nature Reserve, say, or midway across Hempton Wainhill. Once you safely can, stop and switch everything off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of that through.
Exit the M40, under 5 miles from Hempton Wainhill, at the next junction and park safely, not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Hempton Wainhill to the car park by The Village Centre is a very different job from a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the motor has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. If it is noticed quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Hempton Wainhill: what it takes
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a street near St. Andrew's Church Hall, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Hempton Wainhill, and our van travels to it. The work rests on three answers, and we get first — which fluid went in, the amount, and whether your motor has run.
On the spot, that tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because what remains won't flush out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, if it needs to be — and after that your vehicle is tested. If your engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Finally, your system is primed with fresh diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Princes Risborough or a drive in Hempton Wainhill, that is where we start the car and you set off. Before we leave, our technicians check it's running smoothly with fresh diesel in. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Hempton Wainhill itself
Hempton Wainhill is a small hamlet in Oxfordshire, situated in the inland countryside of the Chiltern Hills at an elevation of around 142 metres. Hempton Wainhill lies near the villages of Lower Wainhill and Chinnor, and is approximately 16 miles from Oxford. Hempton Wainhill is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Hempton Wainhill is also within commuting distance of London, being around 35 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains across Oxfordshire, Hempton Wainhill included
AdBlue call-outs around Hempton Wainhill are passed to teams that serve the towns near it — Lower Wainhill, Chinnor as well as Bledlow — and most of Oxfordshire beyond, throughout OX postcodes. Phone and check instead of guessing when you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
A mobile service suits Hempton Wainhill, a rural hamlet: there's no need to bring the car to us, because we drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Hempton Wainhill: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so no single quote is fair. Three things change the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one rests on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Reading Rooms.
That is why each call from Hempton Wainhill starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it has run. Given them, a range narrows to one firm figure.
You hear that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Alongside the car around Hempton Wainhill, still?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Hempton Wainhill or wherever in Oxfordshire.