Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Sompting
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep the motor off then keep your ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and no harm happens until your engine sucks it round. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Sompting. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Sompting: the first few minutes
To do:
- So nobody can turn your ignition on, take the keys away.
- Near moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the quantity, so do not throw it out.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting BN15 0, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Things not to do:
- Don't start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- The ignition remains off: on many diesels, turning it on is enough to start your fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Even a short way down West Street is too far to drive the vehicle.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any Sompting forecourt — the BP among them — will normally lend a hand pushing it clear if you ask. Parked on your own drive? Then it stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for the exhaust, not the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go that way.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. Denser than diesel, it sinks and pools below it — the same place the intake sucks from. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in North Lancing last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it is pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. It eats at some metals used in fuel components, working on any part it reaches until it is removed completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in tiny channels. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell damage overnight for a car sitting around Sompting. Only inside that tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, so the water content harms them by itself.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more major than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Sainsbury and you have a fault of thin fuel. Blended through the diesel and sitting still, it's no threat at that stage; running the motor is the harm.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether your car is in Lancing or the middle of Sompting.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not started? Then the AdBlue waits only in that tank, the easiest section of the entire system to clear, wherever your vehicle has come to rest in West Sussex.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Sompting: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles rests right next to your diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly happens outside the house, from a container bought on the journey home, not at the filling station.
Mostly, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside Sompting Village Primary School the refill is rushed. After work, a container is tipped in on a driveway close to Western Road North. One more pattern: darkness, a pub car park by The Crabtree Inn, and someone using that flap for the first time.
Hired cars, new vehicles, fleet vehicles, or the second car in a family with one of each: the least familiar cars get it the most. Anywhere in West Sussex, Sompting included, the mistake doesn't change, and neither does the first response: keep it switched off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Sompting?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been sucked through your filter and the lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, falling power, lights on the dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Sompting Recreation Ground, perhaps, or part way across Sompting. Pull over when safe. Switch off. Leave the car off instead of restarting it to check. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
On the M23, under 25 miles from Sompting, the next junction is where to exit, and somewhere safe is where to park — not carrying on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing Sompting to park near Sompting United Reformed Church and a drive of under 10 miles for Brighton and Hove are very different jobs. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out after the engine has been run. Spotted early, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Sompting?
The car remains put, whether that's a road beside Sompting Village Hall, a drive, a layby or a forecourt around Sompting, and the van travels to it. The work rests on three replies, which our technicians get before all else — which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together when the tank is drained, right there. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out unaided, and so the whole system gets a careful flush, which matters far more here than for petrol. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed when it must be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of your car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once we arrive, if your motor hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Bleeding the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. Whether it's a parking bay outside Lancing or a drive in Sompting, that is where our engineers start it and you head off. Before leaving, our engineers confirm it is running properly with new diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never needs to be taken to a workshop. At the end, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Sompting and where it is
Sompting is a coastal village in West Sussex, situated near the South Downs National Park and approximately 8.5 miles west of Brighton and Hove. Sompting has a population of around 3881 residents and is characterised by its semi-detached housing stock. Sompting sits at a low elevation of around 12 metres above sea level, close to the neighbouring communities of Upper Cokeham and Lower Cokeham. Sompting is also near the hamlet of Sompting Abbotts, which is part of the larger village area.
AdBlue drains across Sompting and West Sussex
Over the BN postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Sompting serve most of West Sussex too, Upper Cokeham, Lower Cokeham and Sompting Abbotts among them. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Sompting is a coastal village, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Sompting?
Because the jobs vary, a single price wouldn't be fair. What changes the cost is, first of all, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and finally where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Harriet Johnson Centre.
That's why every call from Sompting starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and if it's run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to a single fixed number.
Before a van sets off, you hear the price by phone. And payment is on the day, card or by phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your policy: plenty include misfuelling.
Still next to your car in Sompting?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran are everything our technicians need. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest across West Sussex, Sompting too.