AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hounsdown? Don't Start It
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble begins once it is pulled through the lines — it won't burn, and it will not blend with diesel. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally drained and carefully flushed where the vehicle stands in Hounsdown. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Hounsdown: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- The van locates you fastest with a postcode starting SO40 9, or just the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Don't do these:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's pointless.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short stretch up Jacobs Gutter Lane.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
At a forecourt around Hounsdown, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the petrol pump. At home, the vehicle stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what your motor lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the same place the pickup sucks from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Brokenford overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid waits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — but it will be first through if the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
Once it's sucked in, the harm takes two forms. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches till it is cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Hounsdown with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is only in your tank, nothing changes. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, which is a second kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits again — and the following fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the centre of Hounsdown or out in Foxhills, does more harm than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to clear, anywhere the car has come to rest in Hampshire.
Hounsdown: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many cars put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap, and after dark the two can look the same. No one means it. It mostly occurs at home, from a container bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Eling Infant School and Nursery. Close to Jacobs Walk, someone tips a container in at home in the evening. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The New Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
The least known cars get it most — rentals, new cars, company ones, and the other vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. Same mistake, same first response — keep it switched off — wherever you happen to be in Hounsdown or the rest of Hampshire.
Started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Hounsdown?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Great Long Coppice or halfway across Hounsdown. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the car off instead of testing it again. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the Nursling Spur Motorway, under 3 miles from Hounsdown, by the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Hounsdown to the car park by Hounsdown Community Hall is a very different job from a run towards Southampton, under 5 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. 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 after the engine has been running. Permanent damage is very rare when it's caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Hounsdown?
Anywhere it has stopped in Hounsdown — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street by Houndsdown School Swimming Pool — the van travels to the car. The job depends on three answers, which our engineers get before all else — which fluid was put in, the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed right through because residue won't wash out unaided. A test of the vehicle comes last, once fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, if necessary, swapped. If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Priming the system with new diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking space at Totton or a drive in Hounsdown, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. It's tested on new diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers head off. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Hounsdown itself
Hounsdown is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Southampton and close to the neighbouring communities of Rushington, Eling, and Colbury. Hounsdown has a population of approximately 2788 residents and is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Hounsdown sits at a low elevation of around 8 metres above sea level, reflecting its coastal setting. Hounsdown is located about 72 miles south-west of London, making it a commuter base for some residents.
AdBlue drains across Hounsdown and Hampshire
Over the SO postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs in Hounsdown reach most of Hampshire as well, Rushington, Eling and Colbury among them. Close to a boundary, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Checking beats assuming, and so ring.
Hounsdown is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Hounsdown: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open drive is easier for a technician to get to safely than a tight spot behind Eling Tide Mill.
For that reason, each call from Hounsdown opens by asking the same trio — what went in, how much, whether it ran — before a figure. With them, a range shrinks to one fixed figure.
Before anyone heads out, you hear the quote by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Hounsdown: still next to the car?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Hounsdown or wherever within Hampshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.