AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Swaythling? Keep It Switched Off
If AdBlue has got into the diesel tank, keep your motor off and keep your ignition off. AdBlue is urea mixed in water. As it is water-based, it won't burn and never combines with diesel; damage only starts when your pump begins pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Swaythling, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it is caught before the motor has been run. First, phone us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Swaythling
Things to do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops anyone switching the power on.
- If you are at all near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- The empty bottle or the till receipt shows us the product and the quantity, and so don't bin it away.
- Call just where you are. Quote a SO18 2 postcode or the nearest street name, and no one has to search for you.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift the vehicle: your engine stays off.
- Turning your key to ignition alone sets your pump going on many diesels. Avoid it.
- AdBlue doesn't mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not weaken it.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch up Wide Lane.
- No draining it yourself, at all, at the roadside.
Ask the attendants to help you roll your vehicle away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt around Swaythling, whether it's the Shell or elsewhere. At home, the car remains exactly as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the fumes. Not one side suits the other: urea doesn't belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of the tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Bassett Green last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It attacks certain metals used in fuel components, working on any part it touches until it's cleared completely. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in tiny channels. A motor left sitting in Swaythling with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. Then there is the water: it brings no lubrication to the parts that rely on it most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Esso's forecourt makes the fuel thin — that is the whole issue. Damage only comes from driving on it. Blended into your diesel and left inside your tank, it does none.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Whether the car sits in Bitterne Park or the heart of Swaythling, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other error, and the flush counts for more. Why: it will not stay blended, so diluting it fails; and deposits and corrosion survive the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. Emptying a tank is the simplest job on a fuel system, and with no running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever in Hampshire the vehicle sits.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Swaythling?
Plenty of cars place the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel cap, now and then under a single flap, and after dark the two can appear identical. No one intends it. A container picked up while driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the filling station, is the typical route.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. The top-up is hurried outside Mansbridge Primary School, after your dash flashed with a warning as the kids were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Mansbridge Road. Another pattern: darkness, a pub car park by Fleming Arms, and a driver using that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new motor, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Anywhere around Hampshire, Swaythling as well, the slip doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Swaythling?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Via the filter, through the lines, and — given any running time — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is where it has gone.
Perhaps coming back from Swaythling Station: Old Station Masters Garden, or part way across Swaythling, the motor may run rough, smoke, lose power, flash your dash or cut out. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M27, under a mile from Swaythling, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
A quick hop across Swaythling to the car park by Fitness Room is one matter; heading for Southampton, under 3 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So distance matters. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
There is more to flush once the engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where your car has ended up. When it's spotted quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon.
Swaythling: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
A street beside Swaythling Baptist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt: wherever your vehicle has stopped around Swaythling, we travel to it. The work depends on three answers, and our technicians get first — which fluid was put in, the quantity, and if the engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together when the tank is drained, right there. The fuel system is cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Testing your vehicle follows last, after clean diesel goes in and the filter gets flushed or, if necessary, swapped. About half an hour on site is typical for most jobs where your motor has not run. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a live filling station is no issue, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
The last step is to bleed your system on new diesel. You drive off as soon as we have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a drive in Swaythling or in a space at the nearest station. It is checked on fresh diesel to be sure it runs correctly before our technicians head off. No garage is needed at any stage, with the entire job done on the spot. Your insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Swaythling itself
Swaythling is a suburban area located on the River Itchen in Hampshire, with a low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level. Swaythling sits near the city of Southampton, approximately 2.9 miles away, and is surrounded by other nearby places such as Hampton Park and North Stoneham. Swaythling has a population of around 5147 people and is predominantly composed of flat housing. Swaythling is situated in a convenient location, being 66.5 miles from London and close to local amenities.
AdBlue drains across Swaythling and Hampshire
Hampton Park, North Stoneham and Townhill Park are among the towns around Swaythling that the same vans serve, together with most of Hampshire further out, throughout the SO postcode area. Near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Asking beats guessing, so ring.
No towing is needed. In Swaythling, a residential suburb, a mobile service fits: your vehicle is emptied on the spot, whether on a drive, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Swaythling?
No flat price could be fair, because every job is different. Whether your engine has run, and for how long, comes first in what moves the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is simpler for a van to reach safely than a tight gap behind St Marys Church.
For that in mind, every enquiry from Swaythling begins with the same trio — which fluid was put in, how much, whether it ran — before a quote. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Quoted by phone before the engineer heads out, the job is settled on the day — card or phone, no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
Swaythling: still alongside your car?
Not touching your car is, then, the most useful thing open to you. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus whether it ran is all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest throughout Hampshire, Swaythling included.