AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Holt? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens till your engine pulls it round. In Holt, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Holt
Do these:
- Pocket the keys, and that prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting RG27 9, or the name of the closest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the car just a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not weaken it.
- Even a short stretch down Pantile Drive is too far to drive the car.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
Rolling your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Holt forecourt you're on, the Shell or any other. On the drive, the vehicle remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
It doesn't combine. Once it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Warnborough Green yesterday and never switched on stays the simple one, provided no one turns your key.
It does two kinds of harm from there. It attacks certain metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it touches until it's removed completely. And once the water evaporates, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in narrow channels. A vehicle left sitting in Holt with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate kind of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Texaco, and the problem is thinned fuel. Blended into the diesel and left still, it is no threat for now; running the engine does the damage.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be weakened. 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 your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in West Green or the middle of Holt.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Hampshire your car is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Holt
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap — may look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs allow it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Hook Infant School. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Nobs Crook. Another pattern: darkness, the car park outside Crooked Billet, and someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle of a home with both fuels — the vehicles drivers use the least. Leave it off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever in Holt or the rest of Hampshire you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Holt?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
You may notice your engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Bassetts Mead Country Park or halfway across Holt. No restarting to check: pull over once it is safe, then turn everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M3, under a mile from Holt, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so driving towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, gives a far larger job than hopping across Holt to the car park by Hook Parish Council. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it's spotted quickly.
Holt: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Holt: a side street near St John the Evangelist, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three answers, which our technicians get first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if the motor has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is emptied, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than for petrol. Next, your filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. Then fresh diesel, then a test of the car. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on new diesel. Whether it is a parking space at Hook or a driveway around Holt, that is where our technicians start the car and you drive off. It's checked on fresh diesel to be sure it runs smoothly before our engineers go. Because the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. At the end, you are given paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Holt, for a moment
Holt is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 68 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Holt lies near the cities of Winchester and London, with the former being approximately 22 miles away and the latter around 39 miles distant. Holt is close to other nearby places such as Hook, Murrell Green, and Potbridge, and has a population of around 3339 residents. Holt is characterised by its quiet, residential atmosphere and its proximity to the surrounding countryside.
Holt and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in Holt are passed to vans that serve the towns near it — Hook, Murrell Green plus Potbridge — and most of Hampshire further out, across RG postcodes. Ring and ask rather than guess when you are close to a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
Wherever your car stands — a drive at home, a residential street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Holt, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Holt: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat price would be honest, because each job is different. What changes the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Elizabeth Hall.
Before any quote, never afterwards, every enquiry from Holt begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the amount, plus if it ran. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single firm figure.
The quote is given on the call, before anyone sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Holt: still alongside your car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Holt or anywhere in Hampshire.