Nyetimber: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. As it is water-based, it will not burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts when the pump starts pulling it. In Nyetimber, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Nyetimber
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Tell us a postcode starting PO21 3, or whatever street lies nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Moving your vehicle even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Even a short stretch along Nyetimber Lane is too far to drive it.
- Emptying your tank on your own by the road is not one to try.
Ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the pumps if you're at a forecourt around Nyetimber, whether it's the Esso or elsewhere. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle exactly where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to clean the gases. No part in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in South Mundham last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, working on any part it reaches till it's cleared completely. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that clog filters and settle in tiny channels. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning around Nyetimber leaves it worse. In the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel running through them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Tesco, and the issue is thinned fuel. Damage only comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting inside your tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, because it separates again — and the next tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush matters for more here, and trying the engine "to see", in the centre of Nyetimber or out in Lagness, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in West Sussex the car is standing.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Nyetimber: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical story.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside Rose Green Infant School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone refills your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Springfield. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Lion.
The least familiar vehicles get it most — hire cars, new cars, fleet ones, and the spare motor in a family with both fuel types. Wherever around West Sussex, Nyetimber as well, the mistake does not change, and nor does the first step: leave it switched off.
Nyetimber: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may notice the motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Avisford Park or halfway across Nyetimber. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Nyetimber lies under 15 miles from the Waterlooville Bypass; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of driving on.
Distance counts: every mile carries the AdBlue further in, so heading for Chichester, under 5 miles away, makes a much larger job than hopping across Nyetimber to the car park by Pagham United Reformed Church. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Once your engine has been started, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. When it's noticed soon, lasting damage is very rare.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around Nyetimber
The car remains where it is, whether that's a street near Pagham Parish Council, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Nyetimber, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, since those answers decide the work.
Next, draining your tank right there takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because residue won't wash away unaided. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the vehicle is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the motor hasn't run. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to bleed your system on new diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you drive off from where the car is parked, outside Bognor Regis or on a driveway around Nyetimber. Our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to go to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Nyetimber itself
Nyetimber is a coastal suburban area in West Sussex, situated near the city of Chichester and close to the neighbouring communities of Pagham, Rose Green, and Aldwick. Nyetimber lies at a low elevation of around 6 metres, characteristic of the coastal lowlands of southern England. Nyetimber has a population of approximately 4638 people, predominantly living in detached housing.
AdBlue drains across West Sussex, Nyetimber included
Pagham, Rose Green and Aldwick are among the places near Nyetimber that the same vans reach, together with most of West Sussex further out, throughout the PO postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
No towing is needed. In Nyetimber, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the car is drained on the spot, be it on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
Nyetimber: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight space behind Willowhale community centre.
That's why each call from Nyetimber starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. When they are known, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Nyetimber: still beside your car?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Nyetimber or anywhere across West Sussex.