AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Southmoor? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that's how you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. Being water-based, it won't ignite and never combines with diesel; trouble only starts once the pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Southmoor, is generally what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has been run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Southmoor, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- The empty bottle or the receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so do not throw it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting OX13 5, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to shift your car.
- Many diesels power their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, and so keep it off.
- Adding more diesel does not help: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short way up Bullockspits Lane.
- Beside the road, do not attempt draining it yourself.
On a forecourt around Southmoor, whether it's the BP or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car away from the pump. If you are on your own drive, leave it just where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. Neither side suits the other: urea does not belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump cannot take urea.
It does not combine. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like fuel. Denser than diesel, it drops and collects below it — the same place the intake draws from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Netherton last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the simple case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of harm come from there. It attacks some metals used in fuel components, working on whatever it touches till it's removed completely. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight around Southmoor makes it worse. Inside the tank alone, waiting costs nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more significant than petrol
A problem of thin fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Pace. Blended into your diesel and left unused, it's no threat for now; running your motor does the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Whether the car sits in Fyfield or the centre of Southmoor, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the next tankful.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue stays in it — wherever in Oxfordshire the car sits.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank in Southmoor
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs allow it. A container bought when heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the usual route.
The ways it takes place are few and familiar. The top-up gets rushed outside John Blandy Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the kids were taken off. In the evening, a container is tipped in on a driveway near Faringdon Road. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap refills your car after dark, stopped in the car park outside Waggon and Horses.
It takes place most in the vehicles motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it switched off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever around Southmoor or the remainder of Oxfordshire you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in Southmoor?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and any running time carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Perhaps returning from Courtclose Copse, or midway across Southmoor, your motor might go rough, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Leave the M4, under 15 miles from Southmoor, at the first junction and stop safely, rather than carrying on.
Distance matters: each mile pushes the AdBlue further into your system, and so driving for Oxford, under 10 miles away, makes a far larger job than hopping across Southmoor to the car park by Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor Village Hall. Let us know about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once your engine has run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has stopped. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it is caught soon.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Southmoor?
Anywhere it has come to rest around Southmoor — a forecourt, a layby, a driveway, a street by St John the Baptist — our van travels to the vehicle. The job rests on three replies, which our technicians get before all else — what was put in, the amount, and whether the motor has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when that tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the whole system is cleaned right through since residue won't wash away unaided. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Engine not run? Then count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, the system is bled with fresh diesel. Then our technicians fire it up and you head off, whether from a parking bay by Radley or a drive in Southmoor. Our technicians check it runs properly on clean diesel before we go. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a garage never comes into it. Insurers want a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Southmoor, for a moment
Southmoor is a suburban area in Oxfordshire, situated approximately 9 miles south of Oxford and 57 miles west of London. Southmoor sits in a low-lying area at an elevation of around 84 metres, near the villages of Kingston Bagpuize and Longworth. Southmoor has a population of around 1820 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains in Southmoor and across Oxfordshire
Kingston Bagpuize, Longworth and Hinton Waldrist are among the towns near Southmoor that the same vans serve, along with most of Oxfordshire beyond, throughout the OX postcode area. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Southmoor is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, so it never needs to be moved to us.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in Southmoor?
Each job differs, so no single price is honest. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the location of your car, since an open drive is easier for a technician to reach safely than a tight spot behind Longworth Village Hall.
Which fluid went in, what quantity, plus whether the engine ran: each Southmoor enquiry opens by asking precisely those, before a quote, not afterwards. Those replies narrow a range right down to a single figure.
You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van gets there.
Still alongside your car around Southmoor?
Then, the best thing to do with your vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, across Southmoor or anywhere within Oxfordshire, once you call 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, about what quantity, and if the engine ran.