AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Southampton? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. Being water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage only starts when the pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Southampton, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has run. No step comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Southampton: the first few minutes
Do:
- Pocket the keys, which prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and roughly what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you fastest with a postcode starting SO14 7, or simply the name of a street nearby, so phone from the spot.
Things not to do:
- Do not start the motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Switching your key to ignition alone starts your pump running on plenty of diesels. Avoid it.
- Pouring in more diesel doesn't help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance along Above Bar Street.
- Do not try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Moving the car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Southampton forecourt you're on, the Texaco or any other. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in the engine. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
It does not combine. Once it is tipped into a tank of diesel, AdBlue behaves not at all like fuel. It is heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Easiest of all: a vehicle that got AdBlue in Nichols Town overnight and hasn't been started since. The AdBlue sits at the foot of your tank, untouched — though it would be the first thing through once your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
After it's sucked in, the harm comes in two forms. It attacks some metals found in fuel components, working on whatever it reaches until it's removed completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and settle in narrow channels. By daybreak, a car sitting around Southampton with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it is just inside that tank, nothing changes. And there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the components that need it most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's often worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage is done while it stays put, blended into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car sits in Newtown or the heart of Southampton, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not remain mixed, so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
With AdBlue, the good news is no distinct from petrol. Wherever around Hampshire the car has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest part of any fuel system to empty.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Southampton
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, occasionally under a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; many designs allow it. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Hope Community School Southampton, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. Close to Portland Street, a driver pours a bottle in on that drive after work. Another version: darkness, a pub car park by Yates’s, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
Hired motors, new vehicles, company motors, or the second vehicle in a home with one of each: the least familiar cars see it the most. Wherever around Hampshire, Southampton as well, the slip does not change, and neither does the first step: leave it switched off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Southampton?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. It has been pulled through the fuel filter and your lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has reached the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: each may appear, perhaps midway across Southampton or returning from Palmerston Park. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave the vehicle off instead of testing it again. More of that is pulled through with each start.
On the M3, under 5 miles from Southampton, the next junction is where to exit, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Distance counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so driving towards Winchester, under 15 miles away, gives a much bigger job than crossing Southampton to the car park by Above Bar Church. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
There is more to clean out once the motor has run, and we do all of it where the car has stopped. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's spotted early.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel around Southampton: what it takes
The car remains put, whether that's a street near TK Maxx, a driveway, a layby or a filling station around Southampton, and our van travels to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if your motor has run, because those answers determine this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave as one when the tank is drained, on the spot. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than with petrol, because what remains won't wash out on its own. Testing the car follows at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter is flushed or, if needed, replaced. About half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where your motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Finally, the system is bled with clean diesel. Whether it is a parking bay at Southampton Central or a drive around Southampton, that is where our technicians start it and you set off. Our engineers check it runs smoothly on new diesel before we go. No workshop is needed at any point, with the entire job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later on, which is what insurers want.
About Southampton
Southampton is a major city located on the south coast of England, in the county of Hampshire, with a population of approximately 108,642 people. Southampton sits on the shores of Southampton Water, an inlet of the Solent Strait, at an elevation of around 19 metres. Southampton is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, including many apartments and flats, and is situated near other local areas such as Kingsland Place, Polygon, and St Marys. Southampton is also close to the city of Winchester, which lies about 11.6 miles to the north.
Southampton and Hampshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs around Southampton go to teams that cover the towns around it — Kingsland Place, Polygon as well as St Marys — and much of Hampshire beyond, throughout SO postcodes. Ring and check instead of guessing when you are by a county line, or anywhere tricky to pin down.
A van that comes to you suits Southampton, a coastal city: you have no need to bring your car to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Southampton
Not one single price could be fair, since each job differs. What moves the price is, first of all, whether your engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind The Marlands.
Ahead of any quote, never after, each call from Southampton begins with the same three checks: the liquid, the amount, and if the engine ran. Their replies shrink the range down to a single number.
You get that price on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Southampton: still next to the car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Southampton or anywhere in Hampshire.