Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Odiham
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts once the pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Odiham, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your engine has been run. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps straight away, Odiham: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- So nobody can switch your ignition on, pull the keys out.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the amount, so do not bin it out.
- Call just where you are. Say a RG29 1 postcode or the closest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to shift the car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of 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.
- Never drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance down Palace Gate.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
Get the people behind the counter to help you roll the vehicle away from the island if you're at a forecourt around Odiham, whether it's the Texaco or somewhere else. At your own driveway, do not move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a separate tank, it is injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. After it is tipped into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its fuel from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Warnborough Green last night and not started stays the simple case, provided no one touches your key.
Two kinds of harm come from there. 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 running on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. A motor left standing in Odiham with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. The water in it does damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is regularly worse
An issue of thinned fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol at the Esso. Blended through the diesel and sitting unused, it is no threat at that stage; using the motor does the harm.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's 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 Greywell or the middle of Odiham.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in your tank, and that tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Hampshire your car is standing.
Odiham: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of motors put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally behind a single flap, and after dark the two can look identical. Nobody means it. It usually occurs at home, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside Mayhill Junior School, after your dash lit up with a warning while the children were taken in. Someone tips the container in at home, just off Church Street, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light outside The Red Lion, the car gets topped up by someone using that flap the first time.
Hired vehicles, new motors, company cars, or the spare car in a home with one of each: the least known cars see it most. Wherever you are around Odiham or the remainder of Hampshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Odiham?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing via the filter and lines.
Perhaps returning from Beacon Field, or midway across Odiham, your motor might go lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Every start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M3, under 3 miles from Odiham, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Mileage counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so heading towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Odiham to the car park by Stocks. Tell us about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush once your engine has been run. When it is spotted soon, permanent damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Odiham?
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped in Odiham: a side street near Church of the All Saints, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, about how much, and if the engine has been run: we ask before all else, because those shape the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is drained, right there. What remains from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, so the whole system gets a careful flush, which counts far more here than for petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Low-noise enough for use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on clean diesel. You head off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Odiham or in a space outside Hook. The check before our engineers go is that it runs correctly on new diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Odiham
Odiham is a rural village in north Hampshire, situated near the towns of Hook and Basingstoke, and approximately 20 miles from Winchester. Odiham sits in a valley at an elevation of around 98 metres, surrounded by rolling countryside and nearby villages such as Colt Hill and North Warnborough. Odiham has a population of around 972 people, predominantly living in detached houses, and is located about 39 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Odiham and Hampshire
AdBlue call-outs around Odiham go to teams that cover the towns near it — Colt Hill, North Warnborough as well as Broad Oak — and most of Hampshire beyond, across RG postcodes. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Odiham is a rural village, and a mobile drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our technicians drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be moved to us.
Odiham: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the callouts vary, a flat price wouldn't be honest. What shifts the cost is, first, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the vehicle is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind The Pest House.
That is why every call from Odiham starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Their answers shrink the range right down to one figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear our price by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing in advance. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Odiham: still next to the car?
Then, touch nothing — that is the best move there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if it ran is all our technicians ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Hampshire, Odiham too.