Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Pease Pottage
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you begin if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does begins when the system draws it in. In Pease Pottage, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs normally comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the vehicle is. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Pease Pottage
Things to do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can know.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting RH11 9, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift the vehicle.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Pouring in extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way down Barn Close.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the car away from the pumps if you are at a forecourt around Pease Pottage, whether it's the BP or somewhere else. If you are on your own drive, leave the car precisely where it stands.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a separate reservoir it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what your engine emits. Neither side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
It doesn't blend. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It drops, because it's heavier than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Tilgate overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the foot of that tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through once the motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they settle in narrow channels and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and carries on until it's cleared out. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight around Pease Pottage makes it worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel running through them, and so the water part harms them by itself.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have an issue of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits unused, mixed into your diesel — only once the engine works on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush counts 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 Bewbush or the middle of Pease Pottage.
The good news is the same as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in West Sussex your car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Pease Pottage?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, rather than at the filling station.
A few familiar ways account for the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Woodgate Primary Academy. A driver tips the container in outside their house, just off The Squires, as the day ends. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The Black Swan, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
Rented vehicles, brand-new motors, company cars, or the second vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least known vehicles get it most. Same mistake, an identical first response — leave it switched off — anywhere you are around Pease Pottage or the remainder of West Sussex.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Pease Pottage?
The AdBlue has left that tank, then. With any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the filter and pipework.
Perhaps returning from Finches Field, or part way across Pease Pottage, your motor might run rough, smoke, drop power, flash your dash or stall. No starting it again to test: stop once safe, then switch everything off. Every start pulls more of it through.
On the M23, under a mile from Pease Pottage, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, and so driving for Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, makes a far bigger job than crossing Pease Pottage to the car park by School Swimming Pool. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it is noticed quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Pease Pottage
Wherever it has come to rest in Pease Pottage — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a road beside Crawley Broadfield Family Hub — the van comes to your car. The job rests on three replies, which we get first — which fluid got in, the quantity, and if your motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after the tank is emptied, on the spot. The system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The final step is to bleed the fuel system on new diesel. You set off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a drive around Pease Pottage or in a space by Crawley. It is checked on clean diesel to make sure it runs correctly before we go. Since the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers want.
About Pease Pottage, for a moment
Pease Pottage is a village in West Sussex, situated near the River Mole and surrounded by woodland areas such as Tilgate Forest and Buchan Hill. Pease Pottage has a population of around 1125 people and is characterised by detached housing. Pease Pottage sits at an elevation of 144 metres, approximately 18 miles from Brighton and Hove and 29 miles from London. Pease Pottage is close to the suburban area of Broadfield, but retains its own distinct identity as a rural village.
Pease Pottage and West Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue call-outs in Pease Pottage go to vans that serve the towns around it — Buchan Hill, Tilgate Forest Row as well as Broadfield — and most of West Sussex beyond, across RH postcodes. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or somewhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
No moving is needed. In Pease Pottage, a village, a van that comes to you works: the car is drained on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Pease Pottage?
There is no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind A random kayak in the earth.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Pease Pottage opens by asking the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, whether it ran — before a quote. Once those are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
The quote is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Still alongside the vehicle around Pease Pottage?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if it ran are everything we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout West Sussex, Pease Pottage too.