Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Hyde
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave the motor off then leave your ignition off. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm happens until your engine pulls it round. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly flushed where the car sits around Hyde. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hyde
Do these:
- Pull the keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Ring right where you are. Quote a SO23 7 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Your ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance along Hyde Street.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the roadside.
On a forecourt around Hyde, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of that was intended to go that way.
Poured in with your diesel, it stays separate instead of mixing — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in The Close overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the base of your tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through once the engine runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
It does two kinds of harm from there. What is left when the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. On top of that, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean harm by morning for a vehicle parked around Hyde. Only inside the tank, it stays the same. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Shell and you have a fault of thin fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and left in your tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be diluted. 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 the motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in The Soke or the middle of Hyde.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Hampshire your car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the reservoir: the simplest part of a fuel system to clear.
Hyde: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up while driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside St Bede Church of England Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning as the children were dropped in. In the evening, a container goes in on a driveway close to Hyde Gate. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside Hyde Tavern, and a driver using that flap the first time.
It happens most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that is the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in Hyde or the remainder of Hampshire you happen to be.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Hyde?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and lines have had it pulled through, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might show up, perhaps midway across Hyde or returning from North Walls Playing Fields. Once safe, pull over and switch it off — with no restarting to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M3, under a mile from Hyde, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Hyde to the car park by Hyde Abbey Gate is a very different job from a run towards Winchester, under a mile away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the motor has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage when it's spotted soon.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Hyde
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a road beside Saint Bartholomew's, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station around Hyde, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether your engine has been run, because those replies settle this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when the tank is drained, right there. Residue from AdBlue won't flush away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. After that, your filter: cleaned, or replaced if it must be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, your system is primed with clean diesel. At that point our technicians start the car and you head off, whether from a parking space by Winchester or a drive in Hyde. It's checked on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before we go. We do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never needs to go to a workshop. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers ask for.
About Hyde and where it is
Hyde is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Winchester in Hampshire, sitting on the banks of the River Itchen at an elevation of around 45 metres. Hyde is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, with many residential buildings in the area being flats. Hyde is close to nearby places such as Abbotts Barton and Fulflood, and is situated approximately 0.5 miles from the city centre of Winchester. Hyde has a population of around 8087 people, making it a sizable residential community.
Hyde and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Hyde also cover the locations about it, Abbotts Barton, Winchester and Fulflood among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the SO postcode area. Phone and check rather than guess when you're by a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
No moving is needed. In Hyde, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you works: your car is drained on the spot, be it in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Hyde: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, so not one fixed quote is honest. What shifts the cost is, first, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Hyde Street Chapel.
With that reason, each call from Hyde opens by asking the identical trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before any figure. With those replies, a range narrows to a single firm number.
Before anyone sets off, you are told the quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Hyde: still alongside the car?
Right now, the best thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Hyde or anywhere around Hampshire.