AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Southwell? Keep It Switched Off
Engine off, ignition off: that is where you start if AdBlue has got into your diesel tank. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Being water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes once the pump starts drawing it. In Southwell, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, just where your car is. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Southwell: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, and so don't throw it away.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting DT5 2, or just the name of a street close by, so phone from the car.
Don't do these:
- No starting your motor — not briefly, not to shift the car.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Do not top up with diesel to dilute it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short way up Southwell Road.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Southwell forecourt — the Esso included — will normally lend a hand pushing it aside if you ask. On your own drive, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank holds it, and from there it's sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump can't take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of that tank, and that is just where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Grove overnight and left unstarted is the simple case. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — but once your motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it reaches keeps suffering for as long as it remains inside. Pipes holding AdBlue mean damage by morning for a car parked around Southwell. Only in your tank, it stays stable. The water in it causes damage of its own: the high-pressure pump and your injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
An issue of thinned fuel is what you end up with after fuelling a diesel with petrol from the Shell. Damage just comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left in your tank, it causes none.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Whether your car is in Fortuneswell or the centre of Southwell, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other mistake, and the flush counts more. Why: it will not stay blended, so diluting it is impossible; and deposits and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If the engine has not run, the AdBlue is still inside your tank, and your tank is the easiest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around Dorset the vehicle is sitting.
How AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank around Southwell
It's not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is easy after dark. Mostly it is never the forecourt: a driver picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside St George's Foundation Primary School the top-up is rushed. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off High Street. Or a driver new to that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by Eight Kings.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new car, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle in a home with both fuel types — the cars people use least. Leave it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, wherever in Southwell or the remainder of Dorset you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Southwell, and your engine started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been pulled through your filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Maybe coming back from Broadcroft Quarry Butterfly Reserve, or part way across Southwell, the engine may run lumpy, smoke, lose power, flash the dash or stall. When safe, pull over and switch everything off — without turning it on again to see. Each start pulls more of it through.
Southwell sits under 50 miles from the M5; if you were on it, leave by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Southwell to the car park by St Andrew is a very different job from a run towards Salisbury, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the vehicle has come to a stop, and once the motor has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage when it's spotted quickly.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel around Southwell: what it takes
Our engineers come to your car, wherever it has stopped around Southwell: a side street near John Penn's Bath, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, plus whether your motor has been run: we check before all else, since those shape the job.
Then your tank is cleared where the vehicle stands, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not flush out unaided, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which matters much more with urea than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then the car is tested. Engine not run? In that case count on about half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the last step. Then our engineers start the car and you drive off, whether from a parking space at Weymouth or a driveway in Southwell. The test before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on new diesel. The entire job is done where your car is, so it never needs to go to a garage. At the end, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Southwell itself
Southwell is a small coastal village in Dorset, situated near the southern edge of the Isle of Portland, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Southwell sits at an elevation of 43 metres, looking out over the English Channel, and is close to nearby places such as Weston and Easton. Southwell is located near the famous Portland Bill, a notable landmark in the area. Southwell has a population of around 800 residents, who enjoy the village's quiet atmosphere and scenic coastal views.
AdBlue drains across Southwell and Dorset
Over the DT postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue call-outs in Southwell serve much of Dorset too, Weston, Portland Bill and Easton included. Assuming won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and ask.
A van that comes to you fits Southwell, a coastal village: you have no need to take your vehicle to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Southwell: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what changes the price. How much AdBlue went in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind St Andrew's Church.
What went in, how much, and if the engine ran: every Southwell call begins with precisely that, before a quote, not after. When those are answered, a range turns into one firm number.
Before a van sets off, you are told the quote by phone. And payment is on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing in advance. As our engineer is travelling, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
Still alongside the car in Southwell?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Southwell or anywhere in Dorset, once you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether it ran.