AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Nep Town? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave your engine off and leave your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble begins once it is sucked through the lines — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Nep Town, is usually all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Nep Town, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Pull your keys out, and so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which product, and about what amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting BN5 9, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Never:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Turning the key to ignition by itself sets the pump running on many diesels. Avoid it.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch up Weavers Lane.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
The staff on duty at any Nep Town forecourt — the Shell among them — will usually lend a hand rolling it aside if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
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 the exhaust gas to clean it. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
It does not blend. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Small Dole last night and has not been started since. The liquid waits at the foot of that tank, untouched — though it will be first through once the motor runs, ahead of any diesel at all.
Once it is pulled in, the damage takes two forms. 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, and so it keeps working on the components it reaches for as long as it stays there. By daybreak, a vehicle parked in Nep Town with AdBlue in its lines grows worse; if it is just in that tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second kind of damage.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Pretty's Garage and you have an issue of thin fuel. Blended through the diesel and left unused, it is no threat at that stage; running the motor does the harm.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong substance. Because it does not burn, running it through is not an option. Whether your car sits in Blackstone or the centre of Nep Town, firing it up "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the following fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever around West Sussex your vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Nep Town?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A bottle picked up while heading home and tipped in outside the house, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. The top-up gets rushed outside St Peter's CofE Primary School, because your dash flashed with a warning while the kids were dropped off. Near Blackgate Lane, a driver pours a container in on that drive after work. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car in dim light, stopped in the car park by The George Hotel.
Rented vehicles, brand-new cars, company motors, or the second car in a home with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it most. Anywhere around West Sussex, Nep Town as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Nep Town?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Tanyard field, say, or midway across Nep Town. When safe, stop then turn it off — without turning it on again to test. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M23, under 15 miles from Nep Town, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Hopping across Nep Town to the car park by William Borrer is one matter; heading towards Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, is something else, since each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So mileage counts. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
There's more to flush once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Nep Town?
Wherever it has stopped in Nep Town — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street beside 1st Henfield Scouts — our van travels to your car. Three replies decide the job, so first our technicians ask what went in, about what quantity, and if your engine has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when the tank is drained, on the spot. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since what remains won't flush away unaided. Next, the filter: flushed, or changed if it has to be. Then clean diesel, then a test of your vehicle. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Lastly, the system is primed with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking space by Hassocks or a drive around Nep Town, that is where our engineers fire it up and you drive off. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it is running properly with fresh diesel in. Since the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Nep Town itself
Nep Town is a suburban area in West Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of 37 metres, approximately 9 miles north of Brighton and Hove. Nep Town is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential development. Nep Town is close to nearby places such as Henfield, West End, and Woodmancote, and is about 40 miles south of London.
AdBlue drains around Nep Town and across West Sussex
The vans that answer AdBlue jobs around Nep Town also cover the places around it, Henfield, West End and Woodmancote among them, and most of West Sussex beyond, across the BN postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
Nep Town is a residential suburb, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Nep Town: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Each job differs, so no fixed price is honest. What shifts the price is, first of all, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind Corpus Christi.
That's why each call from Nep Town starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Those answers shrink the range down to one number.
Before a van sets off, you hear our quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
In Nep Town and still alongside your car?
In that case, do nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether the engine ran are all we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest across West Sussex, Nep Town included.