Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sholing Common
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the engine. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and no harm starts till the engine pulls it round. In Sholing Common, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before the motor runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Sholing Common: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- So no one can turn your ignition on, take your keys away.
- If you are at all close to moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about how much, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SO19 7, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the car: your engine remains off.
- Many diesels run their fuel pump the moment the ignition comes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Adding extra diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short way along Ruby Road.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
On a forecourt around Sholing Common, whether it is the Southampton Logs or another one, ask the attendants to help you push the car clear of the petrol pump. On that drive, your car remains just where it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it goes straight to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and a pump cannot deal with urea.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. Its behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It drops, since it is heavier than diesel, and settles down where the intake draws its supply from. Once the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to go through. Until then it sits underneath your diesel, and that is why a car topped up in Harefield last night and not started stays the straightforward one, as long as no one touches your key.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. 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, and so it keeps labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it stays there. Pipes carrying AdBlue mean damage overnight for a car parked in Sholing Common. Only in that tank, it stays stable. Then there's the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it most — the injection pump and every injector.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel regularly the bigger problem?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. No harm comes while it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only when the engine works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. It does not stay mixed, so it can't be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Sholing or the middle of Sholing Common.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere in Hampshire your car has stopped.
Sholing Common: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It's not on purpose. Plenty of cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel inlet, now and then under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple after dark. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Sholing Junior School the refill is rushed. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a drive near Middle Road. Or someone new to that flap tops up the car after dark, stopped in the car park outside The Red Lion.
It crops up most in a hire car, a brand-new motor, a company motor, or the spare car in a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles people use least. Anywhere across Hampshire, Sholing Common included, the slip does not change, and neither does the first response: leave it off.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Sholing Common, and the motor started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the fuel filter, along the lines, and — with any running — into the injection pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
Maybe coming back from Donkey Common, or midway across Sholing Common, your motor might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or stall. When safe, stop and turn it off — with no restarting to test. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M27, under 3 miles from Sholing Common, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Mileage matters: each mile carries the AdBlue further in, and so heading towards Southampton, under 3 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing Sholing Common to the car park by Holy Saviour Bitterne. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the car has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Caught quickly, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
Sholing Common: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
A street beside Bitterne Library, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: anywhere your vehicle has come to rest in Sholing Common, our engineers travel to it. Three answers shape the job, and so first we ask which fluid got in, about the amount, plus whether the engine has run.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through because what remains won't flush away unaided. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your engine has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Bleeding the fuel system with clean diesel comes at the end. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where the vehicle is parked, by Sholing or on a drive in Sholing Common. It's checked on fresh diesel to make sure it runs correctly before we go. Because the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer.
About Sholing Common itself
Sholing Common is a locality situated near the coast in southern Hampshire, with Sholing Common being close to the major city of Southampton. Sholing Common has an elevation of 49 metres and is located near other localities such as Merry Oak, Bitterne, and Thornhill. Sholing Common is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the area's residential nature.
AdBlue drains around Sholing Common and across Hampshire
AdBlue call-outs around Sholing Common go to teams that cover the places around it — Merry Oak, Bitterne as well as Thornhill — and most of Hampshire beyond, throughout SO postcodes. Assuming won't help by a county line or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
Wherever the car sits — a drive at home, a residential street, a parking area, a filling station — we drain it there, and there's no need to take it to us; which suits Sholing Common, a coastal area, well.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Sholing Common?
Because each jobs vary, a single price would not be fair. Three things change the price: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight space behind Christ the King and St. Colman.
Which fluid got in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: every Sholing Common enquiry begins by asking precisely that, ahead of a quote, never after. Those replies shrink a range down to one figure.
Priced by phone before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Check your insurance whilst we are on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Alongside the vehicle in Sholing Common, right now?
Leaving your vehicle alone is, then, the best thing you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, roughly how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Sholing Common or anywhere in Hampshire.