Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Burgate
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Lower Burgate, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lower Burgate: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches your ignition on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and roughly how much.
- Give us a postcode starting SP6 1, or whatever street is nearest, and the van reaches you directly — so ring wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: your engine stays off.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short stretch along A338.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
On a forecourt around Lower Burgate, whether it is the Harvest Energy or another one, ask the staff to help you push the car clear of the petrol pump. If you are on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools below it — the same place the pickup draws from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it waits underneath the diesel, which is why a car filled in Horseport last night and not started stays the simple one, as long as no one touches your key.
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 parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. A motor left sitting in Lower Burgate with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage is done while it sits put, mixed into the diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it can't just be run through. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Lower Burgate or out in Sandy Balls, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere around Hampshire the car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Lower Burgate
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container bought en route home, not at the filling station.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Fordingbridge Junior School the refill is rushed. Close to Salisbury Road, a driver tips a container in at home in the evening. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park outside The Crown, and someone opening that flap for the first time.
It takes place most in the motors drivers know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever across Hampshire, Lower Burgate as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Lower Burgate, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside your tank. Through your filter, through the lines, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's where it travels.
Watch for rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a stall — returning from Hard Court 1, say, or midway across Lower Burgate. When you safely can, stop and turn everything off — with no turning it on again to test. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M27, under 10 miles from Lower Burgate, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Lower Burgate to the car park by Amphitheatre is a very different job from a run towards Salisbury, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. If it is caught early, long-term damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Lower Burgate?
Our technicians come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Lower Burgate: a side street near Burgate Manor, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the job, and so first we ask what got in, about the amount, and whether your engine has run.
Right there, that tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave as one. What remains from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, and so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more here than for petrol. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians turn up, provided your engine hasn't run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming your system with new diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, at Salisbury or on a drive in Lower Burgate. We check it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Lower Burgate itself
Lower Burgate is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in Hampshire, with a low elevation of around 31 metres. Lower Burgate lies near the town of Fordingbridge and the city of Salisbury, which is approximately 9 miles away. Lower Burgate is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Lower Burgate is also close to other nearby places, including Upper Burgate and Tinkers Cross.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Lower Burgate included
Our teams that answer AdBlue calls around Lower Burgate also cover the spots around it, Upper Burgate, Tinkers Cross and Fordingbridge among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the SP postcode area. Ring and check rather than guess when you are close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Lower Burgate is a rural hamlet, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car 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.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Lower Burgate
There is no honest single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind Our Lady of Sorrows and St Philip Benizi.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus if it ran: every Lower Burgate enquiry begins by asking precisely that, before any quote, never afterwards. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
You get that price by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still next to the vehicle in Lower Burgate?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Lower Burgate or anywhere in Hampshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran.