AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Pardown? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does the engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens until your motor pulls it round. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully flushed where your car sits in Pardown. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Pardown, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you're anywhere close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, and so do not bin it away.
- Tell us a postcode starting RG23 7, or whatever street lies nearest, and our van finds you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to shift the vehicle.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Even a short way along Pardown is too far to drive it.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself by the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the car off the island if you're on a forecourt around Pardown, whether it's the Sainsbury's or somewhere else. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your engine. Stored in a separate tank, it's injected into the exhaust stream to clean the fumes. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of that was intended to travel through one.
Tipped in with your diesel, it stays separate rather than blending — entirely different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and collects below it — the very place the intake sucks from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Clarken Green last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
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 labouring on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left standing around Pardown 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 second form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside the tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Not burning, it can't just be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Kempshott or the middle of Pardown.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Hampshire the vehicle sits.
Pardown: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is easy in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the filling station, is the typical route.
A couple of familiar ways account for the majority of them. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Oakley Church of England Junior School the refill is hurried. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Woodcroft. Otherwise, in dim light outside Barley Mow, the vehicle is refilled by someone using that flap for the first time.
It crops up most in a rental, a new car, a fleet car, or the other motor in a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people know the least. Wherever in Hampshire, Pardown included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: keep it switched off.
Pardown: started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running time, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the fuel filter and pipework.
Perhaps returning from Pardown Copse, or midway across Pardown, the engine might go lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or cut out. No restarting to check: stop once it is safe, then turn everything off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Leave the M3, under 3 miles from Pardown, by the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further into the system. That is why crossing Pardown to park beside East Oakley Village Hall and a drive of under 15 miles for Winchester are such distinct jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once your engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Pardown: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
The car remains where it is, whether that's a street beside Oakley Methodist Church, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station in Pardown, and our van comes to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if the motor has been run, because those answers determine this work.
Then the tank is emptied where the vehicle stands, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A careful flush counts far more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't clear out on its own. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes last. Whether it's a parking bay at Overton or a drive in Pardown, that is where our engineers fire it up and you set off. Our technicians check it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. At the end, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer.
About Pardown, briefly
Pardown is a small suburban area in Hampshire, situated inland at an elevation of 132 metres, approximately 48.7 miles from London. Pardown lies near the cities of Winchester and Basingstoke, with nearby villages including Oakley, East Oakley, and Church Oakley. Pardown has a population of around 542 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains across Pardown and Hampshire
AdBlue jobs around Pardown go to vans that serve the towns around it — Oakley, East Oakley as well as Church Oakley — and most of Hampshire beyond, across RG postcodes. Ring and check rather than guess if you're by a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Anywhere the vehicle sits — a driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians drain it there, with no need to bring it to us; which suits Pardown, a residential suburb, well.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Pardown
There is no fair single quote, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the location of your car, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight spot behind Saint Leonard's Church.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and whether it ran: every Pardown enquiry opens by asking exactly those, ahead of any figure, never afterwards. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still alongside the car in Pardown?
Not touching the car is, right now, the most useful move open to you. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Pardown or wherever in Hampshire, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran.