Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Martins Heron
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then leave your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and no harm starts till your motor sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Martins Heron, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Martins Heron
Do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting RG12 9, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Do not do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: your motor stays off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Brockenhurst Road.
- Emptying your tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
The attendants working at any Martins Heron filling station — the Esso included — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. If you are on your own drive, leave it exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's sprayed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its fuel from. Once the system runs, the AdBlue is first to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Harmans Water last night and not switched on remains the simple case, provided no one touches your key.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it reaches till it is cleared from the system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in narrow passages. A car left sitting in Martins Heron with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is often worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that is the main problem. Mixed into the diesel and sitting unused, it's no threat at that stage; using the engine is the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Forest Park or the middle of Martins Heron.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever around Berkshire your car has stopped.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Martins Heron
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap — can look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts allow it. Mostly it's never the forecourt: someone picks up a container driving home and tips it in outside the house.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Rushing, outside Holly Spring Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, a parent tops up the vehicle. A driver tips the bottle in outside their house, right off New Forest Ride, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Running Horse, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
Hired cars, brand-new motors, company motors, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars see it most. Anywhere in Berkshire, Martins Heron as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Martins Heron?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. It's been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Perhaps coming back from Allsmoor Field, or part way across Martins Heron, your motor may go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash your dash or cut out. When safe, pull over then turn everything off — with no turning it on again to see. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the A329(M), under 5 miles from Martins Heron, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Hopping across Martins Heron to the car park by House of the Dursley Family is one thing; heading towards Westminster, under 50 miles away, is another, since each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave lasting damage when it is spotted early.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Martins Heron?
A street by Martin's Heron & The Warren Community Centre, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest around Martins Heron, our technicians travel to it. Three answers decide the job, so before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about the amount, plus whether the motor has turned over.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and both the polluted diesel and the urea come out at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is flushed right through because what remains won't flush out unaided. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, if your engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Bleeding your system with new diesel comes at the end. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, at the nearest station or on a drive around Martins Heron. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Since the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Martins Heron and where it is
Martins Heron is a suburban area in Berkshire, situated near the River Thames and characterised by its detached housing stock. Martins Heron sits at an elevation of around 80 metres, with nearby places including The Warren, Bullbrook, and Chavey Down. Martins Heron is located approximately 26 miles from central London, making it a commuter base for those working in the city. Martins Heron has a population of around 2610 residents, who enjoy its riverside setting and proximity to local amenities.
Martins Heron and Berkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Martins Heron also cover the spots about it, The Warren, Bullbrook and Chavey Down among them, and most of Berkshire beyond, across the RG postcode area. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
A mobile service suits Martins Heron, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your vehicle to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Martins Heron
Every job differs, and so not one fixed quote would be fair. What changes the cost is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Ampitheatre.
What got in, what quantity, and whether it ran: every Martins Heron call opens by asking exactly that, before a figure, not afterwards. When those are answered, a range turns into a single firm figure.
Our price is quoted on the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van arrives.
In Martins Heron and still next to the vehicle?
Right now, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Berkshire, Martins Heron included.