Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hengistbury Head
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, keep the motor off and keep your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it will not burn and won't blend with diesel; damage just starts when your pump begins drawing it. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Hengistbury Head. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Hengistbury Head, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Take the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting BH6 4, or whichever street is closest, and the van finds you straight — so call wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: your motor stays off.
- Many diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Even a short stretch down Southbourne Coast Road is too far to drive it.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you move the car away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt around Hengistbury Head, whether it is the Shell or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave it exactly where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into the exhaust, where it cleans the gas. A fuel pump isn't designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
It does not blend. After it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. It drops, because it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup takes its supply from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Tuckton last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. 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 parts it hits for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a vehicle parked in Hengistbury Head with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is just in that tank, it doesn't. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a second kind of damage.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage is done while it stays put, mixed into your diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not 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 your car is in Christchurch or the middle of Hengistbury Head.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and your tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Dorset your car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Hengistbury Head?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors sits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's not the filling station: someone buys a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St Katharine's Church of England Primary School the refill is rushed. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Rolls Drive. Or the car is topped up in the car park at Thomas Tripp, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, new cars, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with both fuels: the least familiar cars see it most. Keep it off: that is the first step to an identical mistake, wherever around Hengistbury Head or the remainder of Dorset you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hengistbury Head?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Through the fuel filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it has gone.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Solent Meads Golf Centre or halfway across Hengistbury Head. Once you safely can, pull over and switch it off — with no turning it on again to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M27, under 25 miles from Hengistbury Head, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system. That's why a hop across Hengistbury Head to park near St Nicholas and a drive of under 25 miles for Southampton are very separate jobs. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever your car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once the engine has been run. Noticed soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Hengistbury Head: what it takes
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a street beside Southbourne Evangelical, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt in Hengistbury Head, and our van comes to it. Which fluid got in, roughly how much, and if your engine has turned over: our engineers ask before all else, since those decide the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when the tank is emptied, on the spot. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains won't flush out unaided. After that, the fuel filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of your car. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Last, the system is bled with new diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the vehicle is parked, outside Christchurch or on a drive around Hengistbury Head. Our technicians make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel before we leave. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Hengistbury Head, briefly
Hengistbury Head is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the towns of Christchurch and Bournemouth. Hengistbury Head sits at a low elevation of around 8 metres, overlooking the English Channel and adjacent to the nearby communities of Wick and Southbourne. Hengistbury Head is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock and forms part of the larger conurbation around Bournemouth and Poole.
AdBlue drains around Hengistbury Head and across Dorset
AdBlue jobs in Hengistbury Head go to vans that serve the places near it — Wick, Southbourne as well as Stanpit — and most of Dorset further out, throughout BH postcodes. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; phone and check.
Hengistbury Head is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Hengistbury Head?
Every job differs, and so no fixed quote would be fair. Three things change the price: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight gap behind the far end of the built-up part.
For that in mind, every call from Hengistbury Head begins with the identical trio — which fluid went in, how much, if the engine ran — before a quote. Given them, a range shrinks to a single fixed figure.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Alongside your car in Hengistbury Head, right now?
Right now, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Hengistbury Head or wherever within Dorset, after you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if the engine ran.