Stoke Common: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition too. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. As it is water-based, it will not ignite and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes when your pump starts drawing it. Caught before the engine has been run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Stoke Common. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Stoke Common: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Do:
- Remove your keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Call right where you are. Quote a SO50 6 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to search for you.
Do not:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more diesel will not thin it.
- Never drive the car anywhere, not even a short distance down Church Road.
- Draining your tank yourself beside the road isn't one to try.
Rolling the vehicle away from the island is a job for attendants to help with, wherever Stoke Common forecourt you are on, the Esso or any other. On the drive, your car remains just where it is.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. No part inside an injection pump is made for this liquid — and none of that was meant to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Fishers Pond last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps labouring on the components it hits for as long as it stays there. Where the AdBlue has reached the lines, waiting overnight in Stoke Common leaves it worse. In the tank alone, time costs nothing. The water in it causes damage of its own: your high-pressure pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Put petrol in a diesel at the Texaco and you have a problem of thin fuel. Blended into the diesel and sitting unused, it is no threat for now; running your engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Since it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the following fill will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts for more here, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Stoke Common or out in Nobs Crook, does more harm than almost any other error.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere around Hampshire the car has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Stoke Common: how it ends up there
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and in dim light the two can appear the same. Nobody intends 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 pump.
A few familiar ways cover the majority of them. Rushing, outside Colden Common Primary School, after a warning light came on during the school run, a parent refills your car. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Sewall Drive. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up the vehicle in dim light, parked in the car park outside The Dog and Crook.
It takes place most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you are in Stoke Common or the rest of Hampshire, it is the same error and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Stoke Common?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. With any running, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Rough running, smoke, dropping power, dashboard warnings or stalling: each might show up, perhaps part way across Stoke Common or coming back from Bowlake Copse. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
Stoke Common sits under 3 miles from the M3; if you were on it, exit by the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of carrying on.
Hopping across Stoke Common to the car park by St. Mary's is one matter; heading towards Winchester, under 10 miles away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue further in. So distance counts. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been running. If it is caught early, lasting damage is very uncommon.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in Stoke Common
Wherever it has come to rest in Stoke Common — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road by Bishopstoke Junction — the van travels to your car. What got in, roughly the quantity, plus if your motor has been run: our engineers check before all else, because those decide the job.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out together after the tank is drained, right there. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, flushing counts: the whole system is cleaned all the way through since what remains won't flush away unaided. A test of your car follows at the end, after fresh diesel goes in and the filter gets cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Lastly, your system is bled with fresh diesel. Starting the engine comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, at Eastleigh or on a drive in Stoke Common. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it's running smoothly with new diesel in. No workshop is needed at any stage, with the whole job done on the spot. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Stoke Common
Stoke Common is a locality in Hampshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of 32 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Stoke Common lies near the city of Winchester, approximately 5.5 miles away, and is also close to other nearby places such as Lords Wood, Brambridge, and Highbridge. Stoke Common has a population of around 611 people and is located in the South East region of England, about 63.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Stoke Common included
Lords Wood, Brambridge and Highbridge are among the places around Stoke Common that the same teams serve, together with much of Hampshire further out, over the SO postcode area. Ring and check instead of guessing when you're close to a county line, or somewhere awkward to explain.
A van that comes to you suits Stoke Common, a small village: you have no need to take the car to us, because we drain it there, on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Stoke Common: the cost of fixing it
Not one single figure would be fair, since every job is different. Three things change the cost: whether the motor has run and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can get to it safely, and an open driveway is simpler than a tight gap behind Bishopstoke Methodist Church.
That is why each call from Stoke Common starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what went in, how much, and whether it has run. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is paid for on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Stoke Common: still next to the car?
In that case, touch nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Ring 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, and if the engine ran are everything our engineers ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Hampshire, Stoke Common included.