AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Milton? Don't Start It
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep your motor off — and your ignition as well. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the damage it does starts when the fuel system draws it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Old Milton, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before your motor has run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Old Milton, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do straight away
To do:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches the ignition on.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians will see.
- Our van locates you fastest with a postcode starting BH25 6, or simply the name of a street close by, so call from the car.
Things not to do:
- Shifting the vehicle just a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition goes on, so keep the car off.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it is wasted.
- Even a short distance up Old Milton Road is too far to drive the car.
- Draining your tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
At a forecourt in Old Milton, whether it's the Tesco or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle clear of the pump. On your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing inside a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was intended to go that way.
It doesn't combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Easiest of all: one that got AdBlue in Walkford last night and hasn't turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — but it will be first through once your engine starts, before any diesel at all.
After it is drawn in, the damage comes in 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 working on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. A vehicle left standing around Old Milton with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a separate kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Esso, and this issue is diluted fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside the tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether your vehicle sits in Beckley or the centre of Old Milton, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only in the tank, the simplest section of the whole system to clear, anywhere the car has come to rest in Hampshire.
Old Milton: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Plenty of vehicles place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then behind a single flap, and after dark the two may look identical. No one intends it. A container bought while heading home and poured in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Hurrying, outside New Milton Junior School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up the car. Someone pours the bottle in at home, just off Christchurch Road, as the day ends. Otherwise, after dark by The Wheatsheaf, the vehicle is topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
The least known cars get it most — rentals, new ones, company ones, and the spare vehicle in a home with one of each fuel types. Wherever you're around Old Milton or the rest of Hampshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Old Milton: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and lines have had it pulled along, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might appear, maybe part way across Old Milton or coming back from New Milton Recreation Ground. Stop when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the car off instead of testing it again. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M27, under 15 miles from Old Milton, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than carrying on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Old Milton to the car park by Forest Arts Centre 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. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has ended up. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is spotted soon.
Old Milton: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Anywhere it has come to rest in Old Milton — a forecourt, a layby, a drive, a street beside St Mary Magdalene — the van travels to the car. Which fluid got in, roughly the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over: we check before all else, since those shape the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is drained, on the spot. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. A test of your vehicle comes last, after clean diesel is added and your filter is flushed or, if necessary, replaced. Not run? Then count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that is the last step. After that our technicians start the car and you set off, whether from a parking space by New Milton or a driveway in Old Milton. Before we go, our technicians check it's running smoothly with new diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Old Milton itself
Old Milton is a suburban area located on the southern coast of England, in Hampshire, with an elevation of approximately 33 metres above sea level. Old Milton sits near the larger town of New Milton and the coastal village of Barton on Sea, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Old Milton is situated near the Solent, within commuting distance of Southampton, and is part of the larger South East region. Old Milton has a population of around 4877 residents.
Old Milton and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
New Milton, Barton on Sea and Ashley are among the places around Old Milton that the same vans reach, together with much of Hampshire beyond, over the BH postcode area. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Old Milton, a residential suburb: you have no need to take your car to us, because our technicians drain it there, in a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Old Milton?
Because the jobs vary, a single figure wouldn't be honest. The cost shifts first with how long, if at all, the motor has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight space behind St Mary Magdeline Church Hall.
With that in mind, every call from Old Milton begins with the identical trio — what got in, how much, whether the engine ran — before any quote. Once they are known, a range turns into one firm number.
Quoted by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. As the van is travelling, check your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
In Old Milton and still beside your car?
Not touching your car is, right now, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Old Milton or anywhere across Hampshire.