Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Rushcombe Bottom
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. It does not burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when your fuel system draws it in. In Rushcombe Bottom, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the vehicle is. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around Rushcombe Bottom
To do:
- Take the keys out, and so nobody switches your ignition on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep your receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BH21 3, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Moving your car even a short way is no reason to fire up the engine.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so leave the car off.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Even a short stretch down Hadrian Way is too far to drive the vehicle.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
Rolling your car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, whichever Rushcombe Bottom forecourt you are on, the Esso included. At home, the vehicle stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in the engine. From a separate reservoir it is fed straight to your exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A car topped up on a driveway in East End yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. 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 running on the components it hits for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a vehicle parked around Rushcombe Bottom with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's just inside the tank, nothing changes. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's frequently worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the BP and you have a fault of thin fuel. Damage only comes from driving on it. Mixed into your diesel and left inside the tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. Whether the car is in Newtown or the heart of Rushcombe Bottom, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush matters more. The reasons: it won't remain mixed, so watering it down is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere in Dorset the vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
Rushcombe Bottom: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It mostly happens at home, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the forecourt.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Rushcombe First School the refill is rushed. In the evening, a container goes in on a drive near Diana Way. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside Lambs' Green Inn, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It comes up the most in a rental, a new car, a company motor, or the other vehicle of a family with both fuel types — the cars people use the least. An identical slip, an identical first response — leave it off — anywhere you are around Rushcombe Bottom or the remainder of Dorset.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Rushcombe Bottom, and the motor started?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through your filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
You may notice your motor running roughly, 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 Rushcombe Bottom. No restarting to check: stop when safe, then turn it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M27, under 25 miles from Rushcombe Bottom, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Hopping across Rushcombe Bottom to the car park by St Nicholas is one thing; driving towards Salisbury, under 25 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. When it is noticed soon, lasting damage is very unusual.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Rushcombe Bottom
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in Rushcombe Bottom: a side street close to The chapel in the valley, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The work depends on three replies, which we get first — what was put in, the amount, and whether your motor has run.
Next, draining the tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel and the AdBlue in one go. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned right through because residue won't wash away unaided. After that, your filter: flushed, or changed if it must be. After that clean diesel, then a test of the car. If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our technicians arrive. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes last. Firing it up comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, outside Hamworthy or on a drive around Rushcombe Bottom. It's tested on new diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before our technicians leave. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and both come afterwards.
About Rushcombe Bottom itself
Rushcombe Bottom is a small locality on the Dorset coast, situated near the villages of Mount Pleasant and Corfe Mullen. Rushcombe Bottom has a population of around 1050 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Rushcombe Bottom is located about 75 metres above sea level, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Rushcombe Bottom is within commuting distance of Salisbury, which is approximately 22 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Rushcombe Bottom and across Dorset
Mount Pleasant, Happy Bottom and Corfe Mullen are among the places around Rushcombe Bottom that the same teams serve, along with much of Dorset further out, over the BH postcode area. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Rushcombe Bottom is a coastal area, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Rushcombe Bottom
Every job is different, so not one single price is honest. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight gap behind Corfe Mullen Cemetery Chapel.
That is why each call from Rushcombe Bottom starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it has run. Once those are known, a range becomes one fixed figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of plenty of insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Alongside the car around Rushcombe Bottom, right now?
Not touching the car is, right now, the best move you can do. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, in Rushcombe Bottom or anywhere in Dorset.