New Milton: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when the system draws it in. In New Milton, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in New Milton
Do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, pull your keys out.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Keep your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting BH25 6, or simply the name of a street close by, so call from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Leave the vehicle where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Station Road.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
On a forecourt in New Milton, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your engine. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, and there it treats the gas. Nothing inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was meant to travel that way.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays apart instead of blending — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects underneath it — the very spot the pickup sucks 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 Bashley last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What remains once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is cleared out. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning in New Milton leaves things worse. Inside the tank alone, time does nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a second kind of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. No damage comes while it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only once the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Hordle or the middle of New Milton.
As with petrol, there's good news. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue stays in there — wherever in Hampshire the vehicle sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around New Milton: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look identical. Nobody means it. It usually happens outside the house, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside New Milton Junior School. Close to Old Milton Road, a driver tips a bottle in on the drive after work. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Walker Arms, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a fleet motor, or the spare car of a home with both fuels — the vehicles people know least. Wherever you are around New Milton or the remainder of Hampshire, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
New Milton: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the filter, through the lines, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and each injector: that's how far it travels.
Watch for lumpy running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from New Milton Recreation Ground, perhaps, or part way across New Milton. When you safely can, pull over and switch it off — with no restarting to test. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
New Milton lies under 15 miles from the M27; if you were on it, exit at the first junction and pull up safely instead of driving on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across New Milton to the car park by New Milton Town Council is a very different job from a run towards Southampton, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once the motor has been run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has come to a stop. If it's caught quickly, lasting damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in New Milton?
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a street near War Memorial, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in New Milton, and our van comes to it. The job rests on three answers, which we ask for first — what got in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Then that tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Bleeding the system with new diesel comes at the end. Whether it is a parking bay by the nearest station or a drive in New Milton, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. Our technicians check it runs properly on clean diesel before we go. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Your insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About New Milton itself
New Milton is a coastal town in Hampshire, situated approximately 15 miles west of Southampton and 84 miles south-west of London. New Milton has a population of around 18,189 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. New Milton sits at an elevation of 35 metres, near the Solent coast, and is close to nearby places such as Old Milton, Ashley, and Barton on Sea. New Milton is a significant residential centre in the region, with a mix of local amenities and commuter links.
AdBlue drains across New Milton and Hampshire
AdBlue call-outs around New Milton are passed to teams that cover the towns around it — Old Milton, Ashley as well as Barton on Sea — and much of Hampshire beyond, across BH postcodes. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are by a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
A mobile service suits New Milton, a coastal town: there's no need to bring the vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
New Milton: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Because the jobs vary, a flat figure wouldn't be fair. What changes the price is, firstly, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where your car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Bradbeers.
What was put in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: each New Milton enquiry begins by asking exactly that, ahead of a quote, not afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you hear our quote on the phone. Then payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Next to your car in New Milton, right now?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best thing you can do. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus whether it ran are everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Hampshire, New Milton too.