AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Overton? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, leave the motor off and leave your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. The harm starts once it is sucked through the pump — it won't ignite, and it will not combine with diesel. In Overton, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Overton: the first few minutes
To do:
- Pocket your keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are at all near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt tells us the fluid and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting RG25 3, or just the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Don't do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: your motor stays off.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short stretch down London Road.
- Draining your tank yourself by the road is not worth trying.
The attendants on duty at any Overton filling station — the Whitchurch Filling Station included — will usually help rolling it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part inside an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to travel that way.
Tipped in with your diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — quite unlike fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Quidhampton last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. 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 components it gets to for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning in Overton makes it worse. In that tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a second kind of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is often more serious than petrol
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the another forecourt nearby. No harm is done while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only once the engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, because it splits again — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more with AdBlue, and trying the engine "to see", in the heart of Overton or out in Polhampton, does more harm than almost any other error.
As with petrol, there is good news. Anywhere across Hampshire your vehicle has stopped, an unrun engine means the AdBlue yet in the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Overton: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors waits right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. A bottle picked up while driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the usual route.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. Hurrying, outside Overton Church of England Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive near Winchester Street. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The White Hart, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a rental, a brand-new car, a fleet vehicle, or the spare car in a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people use least. Anywhere around Hampshire, Overton included, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Overton?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via your filter, along the lines, and — given any running time — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
Perhaps returning from Overton Village Rec, or midway across Overton, the engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, light up the dash or cut out. No starting it again to check: pull over when safe, then switch everything off. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M3, under 5 miles from Overton, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Overton to the car park by St. Mary's Hall is a very different job from a run towards Winchester, under 15 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out after your engine has been started. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Overton
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Overton: a side street near Overton Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else our technicians ask what went in, roughly the amount, and if your motor has run.
On the spot, the tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush counts: the whole system is flushed all the way through because what remains will not flush out unaided. Next, your filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, and then a test of the car. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Bleeding your system with clean diesel comes last. Then our engineers start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking space outside the nearest station or a driveway around Overton. The test before our engineers go is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. At the end, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Overton itself
Overton is a village situated on the banks of the River Test in Hampshire, with a mix of terraced housing and other residential properties. Overton sits at an elevation of 87 metres, approximately 12.8 miles from the city of Winchester. Overton is located near other small villages such as Foxdown, Southington, and Lynch, and is about 52.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Overton and Hampshire
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Overton also cover the places around it, Foxdown, Southington and Lynch among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the RG postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing if you are by a border, or somewhere awkward to pin down.
A mobile service suits Overton, a village: there's no need to bring your car to us, since we empty it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Overton
Not one single price would be fair, since each job is different. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and then where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Overton Library.
That's why each call from Overton starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Their answers shrink a range right down to one number.
You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still next to your car in Overton?
Right now, the best thing to do with the car is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Hampshire, Overton too.