AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Hurstpierpoint? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does your engine. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's sucked through the pump — it won't burn, and it won't blend with diesel. If your motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully cleaned where your car sits around Hurstpierpoint. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Hurstpierpoint: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Remove the keys, which prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Close to moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BN6 9, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue won't blend, and so it is pointless.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch up Cuckfield Road.
- No emptying it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Rolling your vehicle away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Hurstpierpoint forecourt you're on, the Esso or any other. At home, the car remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to the exhaust, cleaning what the motor emits. No part inside a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to go that way.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Once your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits beneath the diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Albourne last night and never switched on stays the straightforward one, provided no one turns the key.
Two kinds of damage follow from there. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's flushed out. Lines holding AdBlue spell damage overnight for a vehicle sitting in Hurstpierpoint. Just in your tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, which is a second form of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger problem?
Petrol put into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that is the main problem. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and sitting inside the tank, it does nothing.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Albourne Green or the middle of Hurstpierpoint.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits just in that tank, the simplest section of the entire system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in West Sussex.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Hurstpierpoint: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a container driving home and pours it in at home.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. The top-up gets hurried outside St Lawrence CofE Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken off. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Brighton Road. Otherwise, in dim light by The New Inn, your vehicle is refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it most — rentals, brand-new cars, fleet cars, and the spare car in a family with one of each fuel types. Anywhere in West Sussex, Hurstpierpoint included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hurstpierpoint?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The fuel filter and lines have had it sucked along, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Stalkers Copse or halfway across Hurstpierpoint. Stop when safe. Switch off. Keep it off rather than restarting it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
Leave the M23, under 15 miles from Hurstpierpoint, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving for Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, gives a far larger job than crossing Hurstpierpoint to the car park by Holy Trinity Church. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. If it's noticed soon, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Hurstpierpoint
A street by Hurstpierpoint Village Centre, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the car has come to rest around Hurstpierpoint, our engineers travel to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has been run, since those answers settle the work.
Then your tank is emptied where the vehicle sits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because residue won't wash out by itself. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed your system, and that is the final step. At that point our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space at Hassocks or a driveway in Hurstpierpoint. Before we go, our technicians confirm it is running correctly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Hurstpierpoint, for a moment
Hurstpierpoint is a village situated in the South East of England, on the banks of the River Adur in West Sussex. Hurstpierpoint has a population of around 2457 people and is characterised by semi-detached housing. Hurstpierpoint sits at an elevation of 51 metres, close to the South Downs National Park, and is near to other local places such as West Town and Hurst Wickham. Hurstpierpoint is located approximately 7.8 miles from Brighton and Hove, and 39.7 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Hurstpierpoint and across West Sussex
West Town, Bedlam Street and Hurst Wickham are among the places near Hurstpierpoint that the same vans reach, together with much of West Sussex further out, throughout the BN postcode area. Ring and check rather than guess when you are close to a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service suits Hurstpierpoint, a village: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, since we empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Hurstpierpoint?
Since each jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be honest. Three things move the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Hurstpierpoint Library.
Which fluid went in, how much, plus if the engine ran: each Hurstpierpoint call begins with exactly those, before any figure, not after. Their answers narrow a range right down to a single figure.
The price is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; settling up 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 arrives.
Hurstpierpoint: still beside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, across Hurstpierpoint or anywhere within West Sussex, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if the engine ran.