AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Stanmore? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and your ignition as well. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. The harm starts once it's pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. In Stanmore, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually means a drain and a thorough flush, right where your car is. Before anything, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Your next steps right now, Stanmore: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, pull your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- Hold on to the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- Call right where you are. Quote a SO22 4 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Don't:
- Shifting your vehicle even a short way is no reason to fire up your motor.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the moment your ignition goes on, so leave the vehicle off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not mix in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short distance down Selborne Place.
- Don't try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
The staff on duty at any Stanmore filling station — the Sainsbury's among them — will normally help rolling it aside if you ask. At home, the vehicle stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not the motor. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, treating what your engine lets out. A fuel pump is not made to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A motor filled on a driveway in St Cross overnight and not started since is the straightforward case. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but once the engine runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It eats at certain metals found in fuel components, attacking any part it touches until it is cleared completely. And when the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny passages. A car left sitting around Stanmore with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is frequently more serious than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Murco and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's in your tank it does no harm; the damage comes from running the motor on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Olivers Battery or the middle of Stanmore.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere in Hampshire your vehicle has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still inside the reservoir: the simplest bit of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Stanmore: how it ends up there
In dim light, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then under a single flap — may look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts allow it. Mostly it's never the filling station: someone buys a container driving home and pours it in outside the house.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside St Peter's Catholic Primary School, Winchester. After work, a container goes in on a drive close to Wayneflete Place. Or your car is topped up in the car park at The County Arms, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up the most in a rental, a brand-new motor, a company car, or the other car of a family with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use the least. Leave it switched off: that's the first step to an identical mistake, anywhere in Stanmore or the rest of Hampshire you are.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Stanmore, and your engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It has been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each might show up, maybe midway across Stanmore or coming back from Stanmore Recreation Ground. No restarting to test: stop once it is safe, then turn it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M3, under 3 miles from Stanmore, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Stanmore to the car park by Stanmore Library is a very different job from a run towards Winchester, under 3 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where the car has ended up, and once your engine has run there is more of it. Lasting damage is very uncommon if it's caught early.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Stanmore
Wherever it has stopped in Stanmore — a forecourt, a lay-by, a driveway, a street beside Saint Luke — our van travels to your vehicle. What got in, roughly the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over: we ask first, because those shape the job.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one after your tank is drained, right there. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because residue will not clear away by itself. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If your engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Explosion-proof pumps mean a busy forecourt sensible to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the street at night.
New diesel goes in to prime your system, and that is the last step. You drive off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Stanmore or in a bay by Winchester. The test before we go is that it runs correctly on clean diesel. No garage is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Stanmore, for a moment
Stanmore is a suburban area located near Winchester in Hampshire, sitting at an elevation of 84 metres in the inland countryside of southern England. Stanmore is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Badger Farm and Sleepers Hill. Stanmore has a population of approximately 7872 residents and is just over a mile from the city centre of Winchester. Stanmore is also within commuting distance of London, being around 61 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Stanmore and Hampshire
AdBlue jobs around Stanmore are passed to teams that serve the towns near it — Badger Farm, Sleepers Hill plus West Hill — and much of Hampshire further out, throughout SO postcodes. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
A van that comes to you suits Stanmore, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring your car to us, because our technicians empty it on the spot, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Stanmore
Each job differs, and so not one single price would be fair. Three things shift the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind Carroll Centre.
Ahead of any figure, never after, every call from Stanmore begins with three questions: the fuel, the quantity, plus whether it ran. Those replies shrink the range down to a single figure.
Before anyone sets off, you hear the quote by phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. Check your policy whilst we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
Still alongside the vehicle around Stanmore?
Then the most handy thing you can do is nothing to the car. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it was AdBlue, about how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Stanmore or wherever within Hampshire.