Horndean: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition as well. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Being water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just starts once the pump starts pulling it. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully rinsed where the vehicle sits in Horndean. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Horndean, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazards on.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PO8 9, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Dell Piece West.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it yourself.
The attendants working at any Horndean filling station — the Morrisons among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the same place the pickup draws from. A vehicle filled on a drive in Blendworth overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once the motor runs, that is what goes first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It causes 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 is corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting overnight in Horndean leaves it worse. In your tank only, waiting costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
A problem of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. Damage just comes from running on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting in your tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. Whether your car is in Wecock or the centre of Horndean, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever across Hampshire your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
Horndean: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A container bought when driving home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual story.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. Rushing, outside Horndean Infant School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. Near Catherington Lane, someone pours a container in on the drive in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Red Lion, the vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap the first time.
The least familiar cars get it the most — rentals, new ones, company cars, and the spare motor in a family with both fuels. Leave it off: that's the first response to the same slip, wherever in Horndean or the remainder of Hampshire you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Horndean?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via your filter and pipework.
Watch for rough running, smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a stall — returning from Dell Piece West Nature Reserve, perhaps, or midway across Horndean. Once safe, pull over then switch everything off — without turning it on again to see. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the A3(M), under a mile from Horndean, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
A quick hop across Horndean to the car park by Horndean Remembers is one matter; heading towards Portsmouth, under 10 miles away, is another, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
We do all of the rinsing where the vehicle has stopped, and once the engine has run there is more of it. When it is spotted early, lasting damage is very unusual.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Horndean
The car stays put, whether that is a road near Horndean Library, a driveway, a lay-by or a forecourt around Horndean, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether your engine has run, since those answers decide the work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is drained, right there. Residue from AdBlue will not wash away unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, if the engine hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Last, your system is primed with fresh diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have started the car, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Horndean or in a bay at Rowlands Castle. Before we go, our technicians make sure it's running correctly with clean diesel in. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Horndean and where it is
Horndean is a town in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 79 metres, approximately 8.5 miles north of Portsmouth. Horndean has a population of around 16972 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Horndean is close to nearby places such as Lovedean, Honeywood Mews, and Cowplain, and is about 56.3 miles south-west of London.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Horndean included
AdBlue jobs around Horndean are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Lovedean, Honeywood Mews plus Cowplain — and much of Hampshire further out, throughout PO postcodes. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you're close to a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
Horndean is a town, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Horndean: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
No single figure could be fair, because every job differs. Three things change the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether our van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight space behind Horndean War Memorial.
For that reason, each enquiry from Horndean begins by asking the same trio — which fluid went in, how much, whether the engine ran — ahead of any quote. Those answers turn a range into a straight price.
The quote is quoted during the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
In Horndean and still alongside your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Horndean or anywhere across Hampshire.