South Farnborough: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. It doesn't burn, it doesn't mix with diesel, and the harm it does starts when the fuel system pulls it in. If the engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the vehicle sits around South Farnborough. Nothing comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, South Farnborough: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Things to do:
- Pull the keys out, so no one switches your ignition on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put the hazard lights on.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting GU14 6, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Never do these:
- No starting your motor — not for a second, not to shift the car.
- Your ignition remains off: on many diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not dilute in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Leave the car where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short way along Corfe Way.
- By the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
The staff on duty at any South Farnborough forecourt — the BP among them — will usually help pushing it aside if you ask. At your own drive, do not touch it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. From a dedicated tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the motor lets out. A fuel pump isn't made to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Poured in with your diesel, it keeps apart instead of mixing — quite different from fuel. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the very spot the pickup sucks from. A motor filled on a driveway in Farnborough Street yesterday evening and not started since counts as the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor runs, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
From there it does two kinds of harm. What remains once the water goes is urea, which turns into crystals: they lodge in narrow passages and clog filters. Worse, it attacks certain metals in the fuel system, and keeps going until it is cleared out. Pipes holding AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle sitting in South Farnborough. Only inside that tank, it stays the same. Diesel protects the injection pump and each injector as it passes; water offers none of that, and that is a separate kind of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Shell, and the issue is diluted fuel. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into the diesel and left inside your tank, it does none.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally unsuitable substance. It doesn't burn, so it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Farnborough or the middle of South Farnborough.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere around Hampshire the car has stopped, an unrun motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the easiest part of any fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around South Farnborough: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then under one flap — may appear the same. No one means it; plenty of layouts invite it. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the forecourt.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside South Farnborough Junior School. Close to The Grove, someone pours a container in at home in the evening. Or someone unfamiliar with that flap refills the vehicle after dark, stopped in the car park by The Squirrel.
It crops up most in a rental, a new car, a fleet motor, or the spare car in a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles drivers know the least. Wherever around Hampshire, South Farnborough as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first response: keep it switched off.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around South Farnborough?
Then the AdBlue has left your tank. Via your filter, along the pipework, and — with any running time — on to the high-pressure pump and every injector: that's where it travels.
Maybe coming back from King George V Playing Fields, or midway across South Farnborough, your motor might go rough, smoke, drop pace, light up your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
Leave the M3, under 3 miles from South Farnborough, by the first junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue further in. That's why crossing South Farnborough to park near Aldershot & District West Indian Association and a drive of under 50 miles for Winchester are very different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the car has stopped. Noticed quickly, it very rarely leaves permanent damage.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around South Farnborough: what it takes
Anywhere it has stopped in South Farnborough — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a street beside St Mark — our van comes to your vehicle. The job rests on three replies, and we get before all else — what was put in, the quantity, and whether your motor has turned over.
Then your tank is drained where your car stands, and so the contaminated fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue will not wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, if your engine has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Priming the fuel system with new diesel comes at the end. After that our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking bay by North Camp or a drive in South Farnborough. Our technicians confirm it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a workshop. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About South Farnborough
South Farnborough is a suburban area in Hampshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 67 metres. South Farnborough lies approximately 30 miles from London and is close to the nearby cities of Winchester and Farnborough. South Farnborough has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most predominant. South Farnborough is near other local places such as Mytchett and Farnborough Park.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, South Farnborough included
Over the GU postcode area, the vans answering AdBlue jobs around South Farnborough reach much of Hampshire too, Mytchett, Farnborough Park and Mytchett Place included. Guessing doesn't help close to a county line or anywhere tricky to pin down; phone and ask.
Wherever your vehicle stands — your driveway at home, a side street, a car park, a forecourt — our technicians empty it on the spot, with no need to take it to us; that suits South Farnborough, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around South Farnborough: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, so not one single price would be fair. What moves the cost is, first, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and finally where your car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind St Mark, South Farnborough.
Before a figure, not after, every call from South Farnborough opens with three checks: the fuel, the amount, and if it ran. Those answers narrow the range down to a single figure.
You hear that price by phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
South Farnborough: still alongside the vehicle?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Tell us it was AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across South Farnborough or wherever in Hampshire.