Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sandhills
Motor off, ignition off: that's where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; damage only comes once your pump begins pulling it. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle sits around Sandhills. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Your next steps right now, Sandhills: AdBlue in the diesel tank
To do:
- Pocket the keys, and that stops someone switching the electrics on.
- Put the hazards on if you are at all close to moving traffic.
- Which fluid, and roughly what volume? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and our engineers will know.
- Give us a postcode starting OX3 9, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Don't:
- No starting your engine — not briefly, not to reposition the car.
- Switching your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short distance down Edgecombe Road.
- Emptying the tank on your own by the road isn't one to try.
At a forecourt around Sandhills, whether it is the Shell or another one, ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. If you're on your own drive, leave it just where it stands.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Meant for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. No part inside a fuel pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was intended to travel that way.
It doesn't blend. Once it's poured into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves nothing like fuel. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is heavier than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle filled on a drive in Shotover Hill overnight and not started since counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but when your motor runs, that's what goes first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight around Sandhills leaves things worse. In that tank alone, waiting does nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger fault?
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 your tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it separates again — and the next tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of Sandhills or out in Headington, does more harm than nearly any other error.
As with petrol, there's good news. Anywhere around Oxfordshire the car has stopped, an unstarted engine leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Sandhills
It is not deliberate. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. A container picked up when heading home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
It tends to occur in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up happens in a hurry outside Bayards Hill School. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive near Bayswater Road. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, parked in the car park outside Six Bells.
The least known cars see it the most — hire cars, new ones, company cars, and the other vehicle of a home with both fuels. An identical slip, same first response — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Sandhills or the remainder of Oxfordshire.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sandhills?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Via the filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Barton Bradley Recreation Ground or halfway across Sandhills. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M40, under 5 miles from Sandhills, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. That is why a hop across Sandhills to park near Parish Church of St Mary, Headington and a drive of under 3 miles towards Oxford are very distinct jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once the engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has ended up. When it's caught quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Sandhills?
The car remains put, whether that is a street beside Barton Leisure Centre, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Sandhills, and our van travels to it. Three answers decide the job, and so before anything else our technicians ask which fluid went in, about the amount, plus if your engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when your tank is emptied, right there. Your system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once your filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs when the motor hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps make a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
The last step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay outside Oxford or a drive in Sandhills, that is where our technicians fire it up and you set off. Before leaving, our technicians check it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Sandhills
Sandhills is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Oxford, situated near the River Thames in Oxfordshire. Sandhills sits at an elevation of around 105 metres, with views of the surrounding countryside and the nearby city. Sandhills is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is close to other neighbourhoods such as Barton and Risinghurst. Sandhills is also near Headington Quarry, a notable local landmark.
Sandhills and Oxfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Barton, Risinghurst and Headington Quarry are among the towns near Sandhills that the same vans serve, along with much of Oxfordshire further out, over the OX postcode area. Close to a border, or anywhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than assuming, and so phone.
No towing is needed. In Sandhills, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, be it in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Sandhills
Each job is different, so no single quote would be fair. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue was put in comes next, and then the position of your car, because an open driveway is simpler for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind Collinwood Road United Reformed Church.
Ahead of a quote, not afterwards, each enquiry from Sandhills begins with the same three questions: the fuel, the quantity, and whether the engine ran. Once those are known, a range turns into one firm figure.
Before a van heads out, you hear the quote on the phone. And you pay on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
In Sandhills and still beside your car?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the most useful move open to you. Keys out, engine off, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Sandhills or wherever within Oxfordshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.