AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Nuffield? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into your diesel tank, leave your motor off and leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing happens till your engine sucks it round. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Nuffield. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Nuffield: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take your keys away.
- If you're anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and roughly how much.
- Call right where you are. Say a BH17 0 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your vehicle: the engine stays off.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue doesn't dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Keep it where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch down Hatch Pond Road.
- Draining that tank yourself by the road isn't worth trying.
On a forecourt in Nuffield, whether it's the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to travel through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — entirely unlike fuel. It sinks, because it's denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in Oakdale yesterday evening and not started since is the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though when the engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
After it is 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. By daybreak, a car parked in Nuffield with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; where it is just inside that tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the high-pressure pump and every injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a separate form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get from fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Tesco Fleetsbridge. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and left in your tank, it causes nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid as such is plainly the wrong one. Because it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Creekmoor or the middle of Nuffield.
As with petrol, there is good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across Dorset the vehicle has stopped.
Nuffield: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A container bought when driving home and poured in at home, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Canford Heath Junior School the refill is hurried. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a drive near Kennington Road. One more version: darkness, the car park by The Oakdale, and a driver opening that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, brand-new motors, company motors, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles see it most. Keep it off: that's the first step to an identical slip, wherever around Nuffield or the rest of Dorset you are.
Nuffield: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. Via the filter, through the pipework, and — given any running time — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Parkstone Grammar School Sports Field or halfway across Nuffield. Once you safely can, stop and switch it off — without restarting to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M27, under 25 miles from Nuffield, the first junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Hopping across Nuffield to the car park by St. George's Church is one matter; heading towards Salisbury, under 25 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So distance matters. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the motor has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is caught soon.
Nuffield: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that is a street near David Lloyd Clubs, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station around Nuffield, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether your motor has run, since those answers decide this work.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. Residue from AdBlue will not wash out unaided, and so the fuel system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than for petrol. After that, the filter: flushed, or replaced when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of the car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians arrive, provided the engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to prime your system on fresh diesel. You head off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway in Nuffield or in a bay at Poole. It is checked on new diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before we head off. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done on the spot. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Nuffield itself
Nuffield is a small suburban area located on the coast of Dorset, with an elevation of approximately 6 metres above sea level. Nuffield sits near the towns of Waterloo and Stanley Green, and is part of the larger area surrounding Poole. Nuffield is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature.
AdBlue drains across Dorset, Nuffield included
Waterloo, Stanley Green and Canford Heath are among the places around Nuffield that the same teams reach, together with much of Dorset beyond, over the BH postcode area. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of assuming.
No moving is needed. In Nuffield, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your car is emptied on the spot, whether on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
Nuffield: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight spot behind United reformed Church.
Ahead of a quote, never after, each enquiry from Nuffield opens with three questions: the liquid, the quantity, and if the engine ran. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Alongside the vehicle in Nuffield, right now?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to leave it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Nuffield or anywhere around Dorset.