Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lovedean
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm starts till your motor pulls it round. In Lovedean, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Lovedean
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting PO8 9, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition your car.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so keep the car off.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short stretch down Blackthorn Avenue.
- By the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Moving the vehicle off the island is a job for staff to help with, wherever Lovedean forecourt you are on, the Esso or any other. On that drive, the car stays exactly as it was left.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to the exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It sinks, because it is denser than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Eastland Gate last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
After it's drawn in, the harm takes two forms. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting overnight in Lovedean leaves it worse. In that tank alone, time does nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it flows; water offers no lubrication, which is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Morrisons. Blended into your diesel and sitting unused, it is harmless for now; using your motor is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits back from the diesel, and so watering it won't help. Hence the flush counts more, and turning the key "to see" costs more here than nearly any other mistake — in Cowplain or the heart of Lovedean equally.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere around Hampshire the car has stopped.
Lovedean: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under one flap — can appear the same. No one intends it; many designs invite 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 happen in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Woodcroft Primary, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Yoells Lane. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park by The Bird In Hand.
Rented vehicles, new motors, fleet cars, or the spare vehicle in a family with one of each: the least known cars see it most. Same slip, same first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be in Lovedean or the rest of Hampshire.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lovedean, and the motor started?
Then the AdBlue has left the tank. Through the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — with any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it travels.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Yoells Copse or halfway across Lovedean. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Exit the A3(M), under 3 miles from Lovedean, by the first junction and stop somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, so driving for Portsmouth, under 10 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across Lovedean to the car park by Lovedean Village Hall. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There is more to clean out once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has stopped. Lasting damage is very unusual if it is caught quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Lovedean: what it takes
The vehicle remains put, whether that is a street near Lovedean Bethesda Mission, a drive, a layby or a forecourt around Lovedean, and the van comes to it. Three answers decide the work, so before anything else our engineers ask what got in, about what quantity, and whether the engine has run.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is flushed all the way through because what remains will not flush away unaided. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
New diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. At that point our engineers fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay outside Rowlands Castle or a drive around Lovedean. Before we leave, we make sure it is running properly with new diesel in. As the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Lovedean, for a moment
Lovedean is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated approximately 8 miles north of Portsmouth and 57 miles south west of London. Lovedean sits in a relatively low-lying area at around 60 metres above sea level, surrounded by other residential communities such as Honeywood Mews and Wecock. Lovedean has a population of around 3799 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Lovedean is close to the South Downs National Park, with Horndean to the north.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Lovedean included
Honeywood Mews, Wecock and Horndean are among the towns around Lovedean that the same teams serve, along with most of Hampshire beyond, throughout the PO postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
A van that comes to you suits Lovedean, a residential suburb: there's no need to bring your car to us, because our engineers drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Lovedean
Every job is different, so not one fixed quote would be fair. Whether the motor has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open drive is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Saint Wilfrid's.
Before any figure, not afterwards, each call from Lovedean begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, and whether the engine ran. With them, a range shrinks to one firm figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your policy while we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the car in Lovedean, right now?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Lovedean or wherever within Hampshire.