AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Old Sarum? Don't Start It
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage just starts once the pump starts drawing it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Old Sarum, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it is caught before the motor has run. Phone 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Old Sarum, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way no one can power anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and about how much, save the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting SP4 6, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets your pump running on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short stretch down Portway.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the verge.
Rolling your car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Old Sarum forecourt you're on, the BP or any other. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to the exhaust, treating what the motor lets out. Not one side fits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. When your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, and that is how a vehicle filled in Stratford sub Castle yesterday and not started stays the straightforward one, provided no one turns your key.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, attacking any part it touches until it's cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. A vehicle left sitting around Old Sarum with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Then there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that need it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error at the Murco, and this problem is thinned fuel. No harm is done as long as it stays put, blended into the diesel — only once your motor runs on it.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Nor can it be watered down, because it splits back out — and the next fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Old Sarum or out in Winterbourne Earls, does more harm than almost any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and the tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Wiltshire the vehicle is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Old Sarum?
It's not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles keep the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Old Sarum Primary School. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway close to Crosier Close. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside the pub in the village, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same mistake, wherever around Old Sarum or the rest of Wiltshire you are.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Old Sarum?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. It's been pulled through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, maybe midway across Old Sarum or coming back from Rockshill Plantation. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M27, under 25 miles from Old Sarum, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Old Sarum to park near Boscombe Down Aviation Collection and a drive of under 3 miles towards Salisbury are very distinct jobs. Let us know about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Old Sarum
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Old Sarum: a side street close to Old Sarum and Longhedge Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three replies decide the job, and so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, plus if your engine has run.
Then your tank is drained where your car stands, so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more with urea than for petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. About half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine hasn't run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to prime your system, and that's the final step. Whether it's a parking bay by Salisbury or a driveway in Old Sarum, that is where our technicians fire it up and you head off. Our engineers confirm it runs smoothly on new diesel before leaving. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to go to a garage. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About Old Sarum and where it is
Old Sarum is a village in Wiltshire, situated near the city of Salisbury, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Old Sarum sits inland, approximately 77 metres above sea level, and is close to nearby places such as Ford and Hampton Park. Old Sarum is located near the edge of Salisbury, with the city centre just over 2 miles away. Old Sarum has a population of around 1540 people, living in a variety of housing types, predominantly semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains across Old Sarum and Wiltshire
AdBlue call-outs in Old Sarum go to vans that serve the places near it — Ford, Hampton Park plus Bishopdown — and much of Wiltshire beyond, throughout SP postcodes. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask rather than guessing.
A mobile service suits Old Sarum, a rural village: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, because we empty it there, on a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Old Sarum: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. What shifts the price is, first, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight spot behind Raymond McEnhill Stadium.
Ahead of any quote, not after, each call from Old Sarum opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the quantity, plus if it ran. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Our quote is given on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle around Old Sarum, still?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the best step there is. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and whether it ran are everything our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Wiltshire, Old Sarum too.