Shoreham-by-Sea: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, the ignition stays off and so does the motor. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts till your engine pulls it round. Caught before the motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Shoreham-by-Sea. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Shoreham-by-Sea: the first few minutes
Do these:
- So no one can turn the ignition on, take your keys away.
- Near moving traffic? Then put your hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about what volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BN43 5, or the name of the closest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run your pump.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Even a short stretch down Brunswick Road is too far to drive the car.
- Emptying that tank yourself beside the road isn't worth trying.
The staff working at any Shoreham-by-Sea forecourt — the Texaco among them — will usually help rolling it aside if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just as it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the motor. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Southwick last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
It does two kinds of harm from there. 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 labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting in Shoreham-by-Sea with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it is just inside your tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that need it most — the injection pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is commonly worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol at the Shell. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting in that tank, it does nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next tankful, and AdBlue splits back out of your diesel, so watering it won't help. Hence the flush counts so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in South Lancing or the centre of Shoreham-by-Sea alike.
With AdBlue, the good news is no separate from petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue remains in it — anywhere around West Sussex your car sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Shoreham-by-Sea?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors rests right next to your diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It usually happens at home, from a container bought en route home, not at the filling station.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside Swiss Gardens Primary School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, someone tops up the car. Someone tips the container in outside their house, right off Tarmount Lane, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside The Buckingham Arms, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the cars motorists know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. An identical mistake, same first response — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be in Shoreham-by-Sea or the remainder of West Sussex.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Shoreham-by-Sea?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing via the fuel filter and lines.
You may notice your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, maybe on the way back from Coronation Green or halfway across Shoreham-by-Sea. Pull over when it is safe. Switch off. Keep it off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M23, under 25 miles from Shoreham-by-Sea, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere sensible is where to stop — not driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Shoreham-by-Sea to the car park by Shoreham-by-Sea Methodist Church is a very different job from a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once your engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage when it is caught quickly.
Shoreham-by-Sea: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A road beside Lancing College, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station: anywhere the car has come to rest in Shoreham-by-Sea, our engineers travel to it. Three answers shape the job, so first our engineers ask which fluid went in, roughly what quantity, plus whether your engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when that tank is emptied, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. After that fresh diesel, then a test of your car. Roughly half an hour on site is typical for most jobs when the engine has not run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
Priming the system with fresh diesel comes at the end. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, by the nearest station or on a drive around Shoreham-by-Sea. Our technicians confirm it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we go. As the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About Shoreham-by-Sea itself
Shoreham-by-Sea is a coastal town in West Sussex, situated on the River Adur and adjacent to the South Downs National Park. Shoreham-by-Sea has a population of around 18426 people and is characterised by its semi-detached housing stock. Shoreham-by-Sea is located near the cities of Brighton and Hove, with which it has strong economic and social ties. Shoreham-by-Sea sits at a low elevation of around 8 metres above sea level, making it a typical example of a coastal town in the South East of England.
Shoreham-by-Sea and West Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
The teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Shoreham-by-Sea also cover the locations round it, Shoreham Beach, Kingston by Sea and Old Shoreham among them, and most of West Sussex beyond, across the BN postcode area. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
No moving is needed. In Shoreham-by-Sea, a coastal town, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, be it on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Shoreham-by-Sea
Since the jobs vary, a single price wouldn't be fair. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it depends on where the vehicle is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Adur Muslim Centre.
Ahead of any quote, not after, each enquiry from Shoreham-by-Sea opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus whether the engine ran. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Priced on the call before the engineer heads out, it is settled that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In Shoreham-by-Sea and still next to your car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Shoreham-by-Sea or anywhere within West Sussex.