Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Roedean
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens until your motor sucks it through. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Roedean, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Roedean: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take your keys away.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazards on.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the product and the amount, so don't throw it out.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting BN2 5, or just the name of a street nearby, so phone from the car.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: the motor stays off.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself starts your pump going on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance up Marine Drive.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you move the vehicle off the pumps if you are on a forecourt in Roedean, whether it's the Asda or elsewhere. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to the exhaust, cleaning what your engine lets out. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It doesn't combine. After it's tipped into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. Simplest of all: one that had AdBlue in Kemp Town overnight and hasn't been started since. The liquid sits at the foot of your tank, undrawn — though it will be the first thing through once the engine starts, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of damage from there. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches till it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in tiny channels. A motor left sitting in Roedean 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 flows; water offers no lubrication, and that is a separate form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol from the Esso. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is inside that tank it does no harm; the harm comes from running your engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot just be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Rottingdean or the middle of Roedean.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in there — anywhere around East Sussex your car has stopped.
Roedean: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens at home, from a bottle bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
A couple of familiar ways account for most cases. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Mark's CofE Primary School the refill is rushed. A driver tips the container in outside their house, right off Roedean Vale, as the day ends. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park outside The Master Mariner.
The least known vehicles get it most — hire cars, brand-new ones, fleet cars, and the other vehicle in a family with both fuel types. Leave it off: that is the first step to the same mistake, anywhere around Roedean or the rest of East Sussex you happen to be.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Roedean?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Perhaps returning from Val's Copse, or part way across Roedean, the engine may run lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or cut out. No starting it again to check: stop once safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M23, under 25 miles from Roedean, at the next junction and stop somewhere safe, not carrying on.
How far it went counts. A couple of hundred yards across Roedean to the car park by St Wulfran's is a very different job from a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to clean out once the motor has run, and our technicians do all of it where the car has ended up. Long-term damage is very rare when it is caught soon.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves around Roedean
A road beside Ovingdean Grange, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever the car has stopped around Roedean, our engineers come to it. What went in, about the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over: our engineers ask before all else, since those shape the work.
On the spot, that tank is then emptied, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed right through because what remains won't wash away by itself. After that, your filter: flushed, or changed when it must be. After that clean diesel, then a check of the car. Most of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers turn up, provided the motor has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no issue, and it is quiet enough for a residential street late at night.
New diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the final step. Firing it up comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Brighton or on a drive in Roedean. It's tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs correctly before our engineers leave. Our technicians do it all wherever the vehicle has ended up, and it never has to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Roedean
Roedean is a coastal suburban area in East Sussex, situated approximately 2.5 miles east of Brighton and Hove, with Roedean being close to nearby places such as Black Rock, Ovingdean, and Whitehawk. Roedean sits at an elevation of around 21 metres, overlooking the English Channel. Roedean is predominantly composed of flat dwellings, reflecting its character as a residential area. Roedean is located about 48 miles south of London, making it a commuter option for some residents.
AdBlue drains across Roedean and East Sussex
AdBlue jobs around Roedean are passed to teams that serve the towns around it — Black Rock, Ovingdean plus Whitehawk — and most of East Sussex beyond, across BN postcodes. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are by a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
A mobile service fits Roedean, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, since our engineers drain it there, in a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Roedean: the cost of fixing it
Each job is different, and so no fixed price is fair. Whether the engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what changes the cost. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open driveway is easier for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind Ovingdean Village Hall.
Which fluid was put in, how much, and if the engine ran: each Roedean enquiry begins by asking precisely those, before any figure, not after. When they are known, a range becomes a single fixed number.
Before a van heads out, you are told the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Check your policy while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In Roedean and still next to the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Roedean or anywhere in East Sussex.