AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Princes Marsh? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, leave the engine off then leave the ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm starts till your motor sucks it round. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and thoroughly purged where your car stands around Princes Marsh. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Princes Marsh: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops anyone switching the power on.
- Put the hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the receipt shows us the product and the amount, so do not bin it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting GU33 7, or whichever street is nearest, and the van finds you straight — so call from wherever you stand.
Things not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Upper Mount.
- By the road, do not attempt emptying it on your own.
At a forecourt around Princes Marsh, whether it's the Esso or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump. At home, the car remains just where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and an injection pump cannot deal with urea.
It does not blend. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts nothing like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bowyers Common last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow channels and block filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. Lines holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle parked in Princes Marsh. Just in that tank, it stays the same. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger issue?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Texaco, and this problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It can't just be run through, since it does not burn. Whether the vehicle sits in West Liss or the heart of Princes Marsh, turning it over "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever in Hampshire the car has stopped.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Princes Marsh: how it ends up there
Many vehicles place the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and in dim light the two may appear identical. No one means it. It mostly happens outside the house, from a bottle grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways cover the majority of them. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Liss Junior School. Close to Abbess Way, someone tips a container in at home after work. Another version: darkness, the car park by The Whistle Stop, and someone opening that flap the first time.
Rented motors, new vehicles, company motors, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least familiar vehicles see it most. Wherever you are around Princes Marsh or the rest of Hampshire, it is the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the car off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Princes Marsh, and the engine started?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Given any running, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and every injector, having passed via the filter and pipework.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Liss Centenary Garden, perhaps, or part way across Princes Marsh. No starting it again to test: stop when it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Princes Marsh lies under 10 miles from the Waterlooville Bypass; if you were on it, leave at the first junction and stop safely instead of carrying on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system. That is why a hop across Princes Marsh to park near Liss Millenium Mosaic and a drive of under 15 miles for Chichester are such different jobs. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the car has stopped. Caught soon, it very rarely leaves lasting damage.
Princes Marsh: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street by Liss Village Hall, a drive, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the vehicle has come to rest in Princes Marsh, our technicians travel to it. What went in, about the quantity, and if your motor has turned over: our technicians check first, because those shape the work.
The polluted diesel and the urea leave as one when the tank is emptied, on the spot. What remains from AdBlue won't wash out unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters far more with urea than with petrol. A test of your vehicle follows at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter gets flushed or, if necessary, replaced. Engine not run? In that case expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no problem, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by Liss or on a drive around Princes Marsh. Our engineers confirm it runs correctly on clean diesel before we go. We do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Princes Marsh
Princes Marsh is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Hampshire, with an elevation of around 65 metres. Princes Marsh lies near the cities of Chichester and Portsmouth, and is close to the villages of Liss, East Hill, and Lower Green. Princes Marsh has a population of approximately 1123 residents, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Princes Marsh is located within commuting distance of London, at around 46 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains across Princes Marsh and Hampshire
Liss, East Hill and Lower Green are among the towns around Princes Marsh that the same vans reach, along with much of Hampshire beyond, throughout the GU postcode area. Assuming won't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Princes Marsh, a residential suburb: there's no need to take your vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Princes Marsh: the cost of fixing it
Because each jobs vary, a flat price would not be fair. The price changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that was put in. After that it rests on where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Liss War Memorial.
Before any quote, never afterwards, every call from Princes Marsh opens with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. When they are known, a range becomes one fixed number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, the job is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Still next to the vehicle around Princes Marsh?
Then, touch nothing — that is the most helpful step there is. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran are all we need. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder across Hampshire, Princes Marsh too.