AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Lindford? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and your ignition as well. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble only comes once the pump starts drawing it. In Lindford, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lindford
Do these:
- Pocket your keys, and that stops someone switching the electrics on.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting GU35 0, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets your pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not thin it.
- Even a short stretch along Mount Pleasant Road is too far to drive it.
- By the road, don't try draining it yourself.
At a forecourt in Lindford, whether it is the Esso or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it precisely where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. A fuel pump is not made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after poured in, will not. The behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It sinks, since it's denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Standford overnight and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up yet — though when your motor turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
After it's drawn in, the harm takes two forms. What remains when the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and block filters. On top of that, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. A car left sitting in Lindford with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. The water in it causes 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 regularly worse than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Damage just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and left in that tank, it does none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is simply the wrong one. It cannot simply be run through, since it does not burn. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Arford or the middle of Lindford.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Wherever around Hampshire the car has stopped, an unrun engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
Lindford: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars rests right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's not the forecourt: a driver buys a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
A few familiar ways cover most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Weyford Nursery and Primary Academy the refill is hurried. Near Liphook Road, a driver tips a container in on that drive in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light by The Royal Exchange, the vehicle is topped up by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that's the first step to the same mistake, anywhere in Lindford or the remainder of Hampshire you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lindford?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the filter, along the lines, and — with any running — on to the injection pump and each injector: that is how far it travels.
Lumpy running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, maybe midway across Lindford or coming back from Mill Chase Recreation Ground. Once safe, pull over then turn it off — without turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Lindford sits under 15 miles from the M3; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Mileage counts: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, so heading for Chichester, under 25 miles away, gives a much bigger job than crossing Lindford to the car park by Lindford Methodist Church. Tell us about how far it had come.
We 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. Permanent damage is very rare if it's spotted quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Lindford
A street beside Bordon War Memorial, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere the vehicle has stopped in Lindford, we travel to it. The job rests on three replies, and we ask for first — which fluid went in, the quantity, and if the motor has turned over.
Then the tank is cleared where the vehicle sits, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, since residue won't wash out by itself. A test of the vehicle comes last, after clean diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians turn up, if the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Priming the fuel system with fresh diesel comes at the end. You set off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Lindford or in a space by Liphook. The test before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. No garage is required at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Lindford
Lindford is a village situated in a riverside setting in Hampshire, with an elevation of around 82 metres. Lindford lies near the towns of Bordon and Headley, and is also close to Deadwater. Lindford has a population of approximately 2444 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Lindford included
The teams that answer AdBlue calls in Lindford also cover the places around it, Deadwater, Bordon and Headley among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the GU postcode area. Near a boundary, or somewhere tricky to explain? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
Lindford is a village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Lindford: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, and so no single price would be fair. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Pinewood Village Hall.
That is why each call from Lindford starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it has run. When those are answered, a range turns into one fixed number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Still beside the vehicle in Lindford?
Not touching your car is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Lindford or anywhere across Hampshire.