Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hilsea
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts until the motor pulls it round. In Hilsea, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Hilsea, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, and that prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the product and the amount, so do not throw it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting PO3 5, or whatever street is closest, and the van finds you directly — so call wherever you are.
Do not:
- Moving the car just a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- The ignition stays off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start the pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance down Norway Road.
- Emptying that tank yourself beside the road is not one to try.
The attendants working at any Hilsea forecourt — the Shell included — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the pickup draws its fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Highbury last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm follow 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 components it reaches for as long as it remains there. By daybreak, a vehicle sitting around Hilsea with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; if it is only inside that tank, nothing changes. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Esso, and this issue is thinned fuel. Mixed into the diesel and left unused, it is no threat at that stage; using the motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, and so it can't just be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates again from your diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush counts more, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than almost any other slip — in Copnor or the centre of Hilsea equally.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits only inside that tank, the easiest section of the whole system to empty, wherever the car has come to rest across Hampshire.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Hilsea
Many cars place the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind one flap, and after dark the two may look the same. No one intends it. It mostly takes place at home, from a container bought en route home, not at the filling station.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Gatcombe Park Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills your car. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Farmside Gardens. Otherwise, in dim light by The Coach and Horses, the car is refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the motors people know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, wherever in Hilsea or the rest of Hampshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hilsea, and the motor started?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. The filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may see your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Gatcombe Gardens or halfway across Hilsea. Pull over when safe. Turn off. Keep the car off rather than testing it again. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Hilsea lies under a mile from the M27; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop safely rather than driving on.
Hopping across Hilsea to the car park by Bastion 3, Hilsea Lines is one matter; heading for Portsmouth, under 3 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the rinsing where the car has stopped, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. When it's spotted quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Hilsea
Anywhere it has stopped around Hilsea — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Hilsea Lines — the van travels to your car. What got in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run: our technicians ask before all else, because those shape the job.
Then that tank is cleared where the vehicle waits, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts far more here than with petrol. A test of the vehicle follows at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and your filter is cleaned or, where needed, replaced. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when your motor has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy filling station is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the final step. Whether it's a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway in Hilsea, that is where our engineers fire it up and you head off. It's tested on new diesel to be sure it runs correctly before we head off. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Hilsea
Hilsea is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Portsmouth and approximately 62 miles from London. Hilsea is characterized by its low elevation of around 2 metres above sea level and its predominantly flat-type housing. Hilsea is close to several nearby places, including St Francis Court, Vicarage Row, and Anchorage Park. Hilsea has a population of around 6630 residents.
AdBlue drains across Hilsea and Hampshire
AdBlue jobs around Hilsea are passed to teams that serve the places around it — St Francis Court, Vicarage Row plus Anchorage Park — and much of Hampshire beyond, across PO postcodes. Close to a border, or somewhere awkward to explain? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
Anywhere your car sits — your drive at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our engineers empty it there, and there's no need to take it to us; that suits Hilsea, a residential suburb, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Hilsea?
Since the jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. What moves the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Bastion 4, Hilsea Lines.
What was put in, what quantity, and whether the engine ran: each Hilsea call begins by asking precisely those, before any figure, not afterwards. Once they are known, a range turns into one fixed number.
You hear that price on the phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Hilsea and still beside the vehicle?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether the engine ran is all our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Hampshire, Hilsea included.