Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lancing
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Lancing, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lancing
Do these:
- Remove your keys, and that prevents someone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Which fluid, and about what amount? Save the bottle or your receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Call just where you are. Say a BN15 8 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Never do these:
- Shifting your vehicle just a short way is no reason to start the motor.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition goes on, so leave the car off.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is pointless.
- Keep the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch along Freshbrook Road.
- Emptying the tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
At a forecourt around Lancing, whether it's the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was meant to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very spot the intake draws from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in North Lancing last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. 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, so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around Lancing with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is only inside your tank, it doesn't. The water in it causes harm of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the main problem. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. It can't simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether your vehicle is in Sompting or the heart of Lancing, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion survive the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever across West Sussex the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Lancing: how it ends up there
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap — may appear the same. No one means it; many designs allow it. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The refill gets rushed outside Seaside Primary School, because the dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off South Street. Or a driver new to that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park outside The Railway.
It occurs most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are in Lancing or the rest of West Sussex, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Lancing: started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. It has been sucked through the fuel filter and your lines, and if your motor ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may see the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Monks Recreation Ground or halfway across Lancing. No restarting to check: stop when it is safe, then turn everything off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M23, under 25 miles from Lancing, the first junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in, so heading for Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Lancing to the car park by Penstone House. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Long-term damage is very rare if it's noticed quickly.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Lancing
A road by Lancing Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your car has stopped in Lancing, our engineers come to it. The work rests on three replies, which our technicians get before all else — what went in, the amount, and if your motor has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned right through since residue will not wash away unaided. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. Then our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay outside the nearest station or a driveway in Lancing. Before leaving, our engineers make sure it's running properly with new diesel in. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Lancing and where it is
Lancing is a coastal locality in West Sussex, situated near the city of Brighton and Hove, with Lancing being a popular residential area. Lancing has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are predominant, and Lancing is close to several nearby places, including South Lancing, Lower Cokeham, and Upper Cokeham. Lancing is relatively flat, with an elevation of around 5 metres above sea level, and Lancing is about 47.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Lancing and across West Sussex
South Lancing, Lower Cokeham and Upper Cokeham are among the towns around Lancing that the same teams serve, together with most of West Sussex beyond, throughout the BN postcode area. If you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than assuming.
No towing is needed. In Lancing, a coastal area, a van that comes to you works: your vehicle is drained where it stands, whether in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Lancing: the cost of fixing it
Not one single figure could be honest, because every job differs. Three things change the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one turns on whether a van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Lancing Methodist Church.
With that in mind, every call from Lancing begins with the same trio — what went in, what quantity, if the engine ran — ahead of any figure. Those replies shrink a range right down to a single figure.
Quoted on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside your car around Lancing, still?
In that case, touch nothing — that's the best step there is. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Lancing or anywhere in West Sussex.