AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Portchester? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the engine. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; damage just comes once your pump starts pulling it. Caught before your engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Portchester. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Portchester: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which stops anyone turning the power on.
- Put your hazards on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and we can see.
- Give us a postcode starting PO16 8, or whatever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Don't start the engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, so leave the car off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel won't weaken it.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up The Crossway.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
Rolling your car away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Portchester forecourt you're on, the BP included. At home, the car stays just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Stored in a separate tank, it is squirted into the exhaust to treat the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. A vehicle filled on a drive in Boarhunt overnight and not started since counts as the simple one. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up yet — but once your motor turns, that is what goes first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
After it's sucked in, the harm takes two forms. 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, so it keeps labouring on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning in Portchester makes it worse. Inside the tank only, time does nothing. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger problem?
Top up a diesel with petrol in error over at the Tesco, and the problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and while it is inside your tank it does no damage; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, since it doesn't burn. Whether the vehicle sits in Wallington or the heart of Portchester, firing it up "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it won't stay blended, and so watering it down fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the following tankful.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only in your tank, the easiest bit of the entire system to clear, wherever the vehicle has stopped around Hampshire.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Portchester: how it ends up there
Many cars put the AdBlue filler beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two may look the same. No one means it. A bottle picked up while driving home and tipped in at home, rather than at the forecourt, is the usual route.
Usually, it occurs in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Northern Junior School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone tops up your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off New Town. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Red Lion, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a new vehicle, a company motor, or the spare motor in a home with both fuels — the cars drivers know the least. Keep it off: that is the first response to the same slip, wherever in Portchester or the rest of Hampshire you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Portchester?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The filter and pipework have had it sucked along, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and each injector.
You may notice the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Portchester Park or halfway across Portchester. No restarting to check: pull over when safe, then switch everything off. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M27, under a mile from Portchester, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere sensible is where to park — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system. That's why a hop across Portchester to park beside Portchester Methodist Church and a drive of under 5 miles for Portsmouth are such separate jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after your engine has been running. Very seldom does it leave long-term damage when it is noticed early.
Portchester: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Portchester: a side street near Castle Street School, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Three answers shape the work, and so before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly what quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over.
Next, draining the tank right there removes the polluted diesel and the AdBlue together. The system is flushed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Then we start the car and you head off, whether from a parking bay at the nearest station or a drive in Portchester. Before we go, our engineers make sure it's running correctly with clean diesel in. No garage is required at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Portchester and where it is
Portchester is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated on the coast near Portsmouth, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. Portchester sits at a low elevation of around 5 metres, close to the shoreline and overlooking the Solent Strait. Portchester is part of the larger Portsmouth urban area, but retains its own distinct character as a smaller community. Portchester is near other suburban areas like Port Solent and Paulsgrove, and is within easy reach of the city of Portsmouth.
AdBlue drains across Portchester and Hampshire
AdBlue jobs around Portchester go to teams that cover the places around it — Port Solent, Paulsgrove as well as Downend — and much of Hampshire further out, throughout PO postcodes. Assuming won't help close to a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
A mobile service fits Portchester, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, because our engineers empty it there, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Portchester
Since the jobs vary, a single price wouldn't be honest. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Portchester Library.
That is why every call from Portchester starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and whether it's run. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Portchester: still alongside the car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with your car is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if it ran is everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder throughout Hampshire, Portchester included.