Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Horsemere Green
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing starts till your engine pulls it round. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and thoroughly cleaned where the vehicle sits in Horsemere Green. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Horsemere Green: the first few minutes
Do:
- Take your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it out.
- Give us a postcode starting BN17 5, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you directly — so call from wherever you stand.
Do not:
- Shifting the vehicle even a short way is no reason to start your motor.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Do not drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along Wooldridge Walk.
- Draining the tank on your own by the road isn't worth trying.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your car off the island if you are at a forecourt around Horsemere Green, whether it is the Tesco or somewhere else. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not your engine. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A motor filled on a drive in Ford overnight and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when your engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
Two kinds of damage 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, so it keeps working on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left standing around Horsemere Green with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Morrisons, and the issue is diluted fuel. No damage is done while it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue splits again out of your diesel, so thinning it can't help. Hence the flush counts more, and trying the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly any other slip — in Atherington or the heart of Horsemere Green alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere across West Sussex your car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Horsemere Green?
It's not on purpose. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. It usually takes place outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. The refill is rushed outside St Mary's CofE Primary School, because your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were dropped in. Someone tips the container in at home, right off Longwood Close, as the day ends. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside The Oystercatcher, and a driver opening that flap the first time.
Rented vehicles, new motors, fleet motors, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least known cars get it most. Wherever you are around Horsemere Green or the remainder of West Sussex, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Horsemere Green: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Expect rough running, smoke, falling power, warnings on the dash, or a cut-out — returning from Ford Airfield Commemorative Garden, perhaps, or part way across Horsemere Green. When you safely can, pull over and turn everything off — with no restarting to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the Waterlooville Bypass, under 25 miles from Horsemere Green, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Horsemere Green to the car park by Ford Open Air Market is a very different job from a run towards Chichester, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage when it's noticed quickly.
Horsemere Green: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Anywhere it has stopped in Horsemere Green — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Prison Chapel — our van travels to your car. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether the motor has run, since those answers decide the work.
On the spot, your tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through because what remains won't flush out unaided. A test of your vehicle follows at the end, after clean diesel is added and your filter is flushed or, if needed, replaced. Engine not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
Finally, the fuel system is primed with clean diesel. Firing it up comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, outside Ford or on a driveway around Horsemere Green. Before leaving, our engineers check it's running properly with fresh diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Horsemere Green and where it is
Horsemere Green is a small village in West Sussex, situated near the coast and close to the neighbouring villages of Climping and Burndell. Horsemere Green has a low elevation of around 4 metres, and its detached housing stock is typical of the area. Horsemere Green is located approximately 8.5 miles from Chichester and 52 miles from London, making it a relatively rural community within commuting distance of larger cities.
AdBlue drains in Horsemere Green and across West Sussex
Throughout the BN postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs around Horsemere Green reach much of West Sussex as well, Climping, Burndell and Brookpits included. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
A van that comes to you suits Horsemere Green, a coastal village: there's no need to bring your car to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Horsemere Green: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat price would be honest, since every job differs. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it turns on where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St Mary's Church.
That's why each call from Horsemere Green starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the price by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Check your policy while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still beside the car around Horsemere Green?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran is everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout West Sussex, Horsemere Green included.