AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rowledge? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your motor off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till the motor pulls it round. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly purged where the car stands in Rowledge. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
What to do right now, Rowledge: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Do:
- Keys out — then nobody can power anything on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you're anywhere near moving traffic.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, so don't bin it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting GU10 4, or the name of the closest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting the engine — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment the ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra fuel will not thin it.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short distance down Cherry Tree Road.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road isn't worth trying.
Rolling your vehicle off the pumps is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Rowledge forecourt you are on, the Shell included. At home, the vehicle remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to go through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is nothing like fuel's. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that had AdBlue in Wrecclesham last night and has not turned since. The liquid waits at the base of that tank, untouched — but it would be first through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. It eats at certain metals used in fuel components, attacking any part it reaches until it is cleared completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it till morning in Rowledge makes it worse. Inside that tank alone, waiting does nothing. Diesel protects the injection pump and every injector as it flows; water gives none of that, which is a separate kind of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is frequently worse than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Texaco's forecourt leaves the fuel watery — that is the main issue. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left in the tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot just be run through. Deposits and corrosion stay after the following fill, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, so watering it can't work. That is why the flush counts more, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Middle Bourne or the heart of Rowledge alike.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever in Surrey the vehicle has come to rest, an unstarted motor leaves the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
Rowledge: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
Many vehicles put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap, and in dim light the two may look the same. No one means it. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Rowledge Church of England Controlled Primary School. Close to The Square, a driver pours a container in at home in the evening. Another version: dim light, a pub car park by The Hare and Hounds, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Rented vehicles, brand-new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with both fuels: the least known cars get it the most. Leave it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, anywhere around Rowledge or the remainder of Surrey you are.
Rowledge: started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the filter, through the lines, and — with any running — on to the injection pump and every injector: that is how far it has gone.
You may see the engine running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Rowledge Cricket Club or halfway across Rowledge. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M3, under 10 miles from Rowledge, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Every mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system. That is why crossing Rowledge to park near Rowledge Village Hall and a drive of under 25 miles for Winchester are such different jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once the motor has run there is more of it. Spotted quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Rowledge?
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped around Rowledge: a side street near Saint James, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid got in, about the quantity, and if your engine has turned over: we ask before all else, since those shape the work.
Then the tank is cleared where the car stands, and so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because what remains won't flush out unaided. A test of your vehicle follows last, once fresh diesel goes in and your filter is flushed or, if necessary, replaced. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The last step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. At that point our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking space outside Bentley (Hampshire) or a driveway around Rowledge. The test before our technicians go is that it runs properly on new diesel. We do it all wherever the vehicle has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come at the end.
About Rowledge, for a moment
Rowledge is a small village in Surrey, situated inland at an elevation of 111 metres, and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock. Rowledge lies near the villages of Holt Pound, Boundstone, and Shortheath, and is approximately 22.8 miles from the city of Winchester. Rowledge is also within commuting distance of London, being around 37.4 miles from the capital. Rowledge has a population of around 645 residents, making it a quiet and intimate community.
AdBlue drains across Rowledge and Surrey
Throughout the GU postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue call-outs in Rowledge reach much of Surrey too, Holt Pound, Boundstone and Shortheath among them. Guessing doesn't help by a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Rowledge, a rural village: there's no need to take the vehicle to us, since our engineers empty it on the spot, on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Rowledge
Since the callouts differ, a single price would not be fair. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of your car, since an open drive is simpler for our van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Cosmos Structure.
For that reason, every call from Rowledge opens by asking the same trio — which fluid got in, what quantity, whether the engine ran — before a figure. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Look at your policy whilst we're on the way: many carry misfuelling cover.
Rowledge: still next to the vehicle?
Then, do nothing — that is the best step there is. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Rowledge or anywhere in Surrey.