Leigh: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your engine off then leave your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till your engine pulls it round. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Leigh. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Leigh: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Take your keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BH21 2, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Moving the car just a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is wasted.
- Even a short way down Leigh Road is too far to drive the car.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Leigh filling station — the BP among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Kept in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to treat the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't take urea.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. The pickup sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's precisely where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Hayes last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it's cleared out. Overnight, a car parked around Leigh with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is just in the tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it flows; water offers none of that, which is a second form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running your engine on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Whether your vehicle is in East Brook or the heart of Leigh, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Dorset the car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Leigh: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the filling station: someone picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. The top-up is rushed outside St John's Church of England First School, Wimborne, because your dash lit up with a warning as the children were taken in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Northleigh Lane. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Colehill Sports & Social Club, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Hired motors, brand-new vehicles, fleet cars, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars see it the most. An identical slip, an identical first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around Leigh or the remainder of Dorset.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Leigh, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — with any running — into the injection pump and every injector: that's how far it has gone.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any may show up, perhaps part way across Leigh or coming back from Leigh Common. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off instead of testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
On the M27, under 25 miles from Leigh, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Leigh to park beside St John's Church and a drive of under 25 miles towards Salisbury are such different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been started. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Leigh: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Leigh: a side street close to Elm Pentecostal Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else we ask what got in, about how much, and if your motor has been run, since those answers decide the work.
Then your tank is emptied where your car sits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through since residue will not flush out by itself. A test of your vehicle follows at the end, after clean diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, if needed, replaced. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime your system on clean diesel. Then our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space at Parkstone (Dorset) or a driveway in Leigh. It is tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our engineers head off. As the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Leigh
Leigh is a suburban area in Dorset, situated on the riverside at a low elevation of around 18 metres. Leigh lies near the towns of Colehill and St Johns, and is part of the wider area that includes Rowlands. Leigh is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its development as a residential area.
AdBlue drains across Dorset, Leigh included
Colehill, St Johns and Rowlands are among the towns around Leigh that the same vans serve, together with most of Dorset further out, over the BH postcode area. Ring and ask rather than guess when you are close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Leigh is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Leigh?
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. The price changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind St Catherine's Catholic Church.
Before any quote, not after, each enquiry from Leigh begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and if it ran. Given those replies, the range narrows to a single firm figure.
You get that price on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Next to the vehicle in Leigh, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, right now, the best move you can do. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Leigh or anywhere across Dorset.