Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rixon
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It does not burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system pulls it in. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Rixon, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before the engine has run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rixon
Do:
- Take your keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Put the hazards on if you are anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not bin it out.
- Give us a postcode starting DT10 1, or whichever street lies closest, and our van finds you straight — so ring wherever you are.
Do not:
- No starting the motor — not briefly, not to reposition the vehicle.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so keep it off.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out instead of blending.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance up Field Close.
- Do not try to drain it yourself by the kerbside.
The attendants working at any Rixon filling station — the G&A Cook included — will usually lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. Stopped on your own drive? Then it stays just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the gas. No part inside an injection pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was meant to travel through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it is poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue acts nothing like diesel. It drops, since it's denser than diesel, and settles down where the pickup takes its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Newton last night, and has not been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm overnight for a vehicle parked in Rixon. Just inside the tank, it stays stable. The water in it does harm of its own: your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
A fault of thin fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol from the Texaco. Harm just comes from running on it. Mixed into the diesel and sitting in your tank, it causes none.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It cannot simply be run through, since it doesn't burn. Crystals and corrosion remain through the next fill, and AdBlue splits again from your diesel, so watering it won't help. That is why the flush counts so much, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm here than almost any other slip — in Stour Meadows or the heart of Rixon alike.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits only inside the tank, the easiest section of the whole system to clear, wherever your vehicle has come to rest around Dorset.
Rixon: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many cars sits right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Usually it's never the forecourt: a driver buys a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Midway through the drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside William Barnes Primary School the refill is hurried. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Honeymead Lane. Or a driver new to that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park by Swan Inn.
The least known vehicles see it the most — hire cars, new ones, company cars, and the other motor in a family with both fuels. An identical slip, an identical first response — keep it switched off — wherever you are around Rixon or the rest of Dorset.
Rixon: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Given any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through the filter and pipework.
You may see the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from the green space at the edge of the village or halfway across Rixon. When you safely can, stop and turn everything off — with no restarting to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M27, under 50 miles from Rixon, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Rixon to park near Sturminster Newton Leisure Centre and a drive of under 25 miles towards Salisbury are very distinct jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. Permanent damage is very rare when it's caught quickly.
Rixon: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
The vehicle stays where it is, whether that's a street beside The Exchange, a driveway, a layby or a filling station around Rixon, and the van travels to it. Three answers decide the work, and so first we ask which fluid went in, roughly the amount, plus whether your engine has run.
Then your tank is drained where the car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not wash out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If your engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. Then our technicians start the car and you head off, whether from a parking space outside Gillingham (Dorset) or a drive around Rixon. Our technicians check it runs properly on new diesel before leaving. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Rixon
Rixon is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Dorset, with an elevation of around 66 metres. Rixon lies near the towns of Sturminster Newton and Hinton St Mary, and is also close to Yewstock. Rixon has a population of approximately 2009 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Rixon is located about 23.6 miles from Salisbury and 101.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Dorset, Rixon included
Yewstock, Sturminster Newton and Hinton St Mary are among the places near Rixon that the same teams reach, along with much of Dorset beyond, over the DT postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
Rixon is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Rixon: the cost of fixing it
There is no fair single price, since the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, since an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight spot behind Sturminster Newton Library.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, and if the engine ran: every Rixon call begins by asking precisely that, ahead of any figure, never after. Those replies turn a range into a straight quote.
The quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with plenty of insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside the car in Rixon?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout Dorset, Rixon included.