AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Locks Heath? Don't Start It
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Locks Heath, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has run. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Locks Heath, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- If you are anywhere close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and roughly how much amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers will see.
- Our van locates you quickest with a postcode starting SO31 6, or just the name of a street nearby, so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to reposition your vehicle.
- Switching the key to ignition alone sets your pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short way along Locks Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
The attendants on duty at any Locks Heath filling station — the BP included — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. On the drive, your car stays just where it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Simplest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Fleetend last night and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue waits at the base of that tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through if the motor starts, ahead of any diesel at all.
From there it does 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 reaches for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the pipework, waiting till morning around Locks Heath leaves things worse. Inside that tank only, time does nothing. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is commonly worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside the tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid as such is plainly the wrong one. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the next fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Locks Heath or out in Abshot, costs more than almost any other slip.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever across Hampshire your car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Locks Heath: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars rests right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually takes place outside the house, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the forecourt.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Park Gate Primary School the top-up is hurried. Near High Oaks Close, a driver pours a container in on that drive in the evening. Another version: darkness, a pub car park outside Strawberry Field Tavern, and someone using that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it switched off: that's the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Locks Heath or the remainder of Hampshire you are.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Locks Heath?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Given any running, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through your filter and pipework.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: each might show up, maybe midway across Locks Heath or coming back from Locks Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M27, under a mile from Locks Heath, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Hopping across Locks Heath to the car park by Genesis Centre is one thing; heading for Southampton, under 10 miles away, is something else, since each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been run. Caught soon, it very seldom leaves lasting damage.
Locks Heath: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road by Lockswood Library, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Locks Heath, our technicians travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and whether the motor has run, since those replies decide the work.
Then your tank is emptied where the car stands, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through because what remains will not wash away by itself. Clean diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or replaced, if it needs to be — and after that your car is tested. About half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the engine hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the system with clean diesel comes at the end. You head off as soon as we have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around Locks Heath or in a bay by Swanwick. It's checked on new diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians head off. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Locks Heath, briefly
Locks Heath is a village in southern Hampshire, situated near the coast and approximately 6.5 miles east of Southampton. Locks Heath sits at an elevation of around 43 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting the area's residential character. Locks Heath is close to nearby places such as Park Gate, Titchfield Common, and Segensworth, and is located within commuting distance of major cities like Southampton and London. Locks Heath has a population of around 3403 people, according to recent estimates.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Locks Heath included
AdBlue call-outs in Locks Heath are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Park Gate, Titchfield Common as well as Segensworth — and much of Hampshire further out, throughout SO postcodes. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
Wherever the car sits — a drive at home, a side street, a car park, a filling station — our technicians empty it on the spot, and there's no need to bring it to us; that suits Locks Heath, a coastal village, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Locks Heath: the cost of fixing it
Every job is different, so not one fixed price is fair. Three things change the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind St John.
Ahead of any figure, not afterwards, every enquiry from Locks Heath begins with three checks: the liquid, the amount, plus if it ran. When they are known, a range becomes one fixed number.
Before anyone sets off, you hear our price by phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Locks Heath: still next to your car?
Then, touch nothing — that's the most helpful step there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran is all our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Hampshire, Locks Heath included.