The Close: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing starts till your engine pulls it round. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the car sits around The Close. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in The Close: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Close to moving traffic? So put your hazards on.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the fluid and the amount, so don't bin it away.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SO23 9, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- No starting your engine — not for a second, not to shift your vehicle.
- Many diesels power their pump the moment the ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- Don't top up with diesel to thin it. AdBlue does not dilute in diesel; it separates out.
- Do not drive it anywhere, not even a short distance up St Swithun Street.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
Rolling your car off the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever The Close forecourt you are on, the BP or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, where it cleans the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never supposed to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves very differently from fuel. It doesn't mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it waits beneath the diesel, and that is how a car filled in Highcliffe yesterday and never started remains the simple case, provided no one turns your key.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What is left once the water evaporates is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in narrow passages and clog filters. On top of that, it eats at certain metals in a fuel system, and carries on until it is flushed out. Lines holding AdBlue mean harm by morning for a car parked around The Close. Only in that tank, it stays the same. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water content damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and this problem is thinned fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it is in your tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be weakened. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether your car is in Bar End or the middle of The Close.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue waits just in the tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in Hampshire.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around The Close?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many vehicles sits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
Usually, it happens in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside All Saints Church of England Primary School. Near Kingsgate Street, a driver pours a bottle in on the drive in the evening. Otherwise, in dim light by The Wykeham Arms, the vehicle is topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
The least known vehicles get it the most — hire cars, new cars, company cars, and the spare car of a family with one of each fuels. An identical mistake, an identical first response — leave it off — wherever you happen to be in The Close or the remainder of Hampshire.
The Close: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Given any running time, it travels to the injection pump and each injector, after passing through the fuel filter and lines.
Rough running, smoke, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, perhaps part way across The Close or returning from Dean Garnier Garden. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Leave it off instead of restarting it to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M3, under a mile from The Close, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Hopping across The Close to the car park by King's Gate is one thing; heading towards Winchester, under a mile away, is another, because every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage counts. Tell us about how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the flushing where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been started there is more of it. Very seldom does it leave permanent damage if it's spotted quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves around The Close
A road by Saint Swithun upon Kingsgate, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever the car has stopped around The Close, we travel to it. Three answers decide the work, and so first our engineers ask what was put in, about what quantity, and whether the motor has run.
Next, emptying your tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, more so than with petrol, the flush counts: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through because residue will not wash out unaided. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or swapped, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. Not run? Then count on about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a busy forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that is the final step. At that point our technicians start it and you drive off, whether from a parking bay outside Winchester or a drive in The Close. Before we leave, our engineers check it's running correctly with clean diesel in. Our technicians do it all wherever your car has ended up, and it never has to go to a workshop. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About The Close and where it is
The Close is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Hampshire, with The Close being adjacent to the city of Winchester. The Close has an elevation of 36 metres and is located approximately 59.9 miles from London. The Close is characterized by its predominant housing type, which is flats, and is part of the wider Winchester urban area.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, The Close included
Our teams that answer AdBlue jobs around The Close also cover the places around it, Winchester, Wharf Hill and The Soke among them, and most of Hampshire beyond, across the SO postcode area. Phone and check instead of guessing when you are by a county line, or anywhere awkward to explain.
No towing is needed. In The Close, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: your vehicle is emptied on the spot, be it on a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in The Close?
Every job is different, and so not one fixed quote is fair. Three things shift the price: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether our van can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight space behind Priory Gate.
That's why each call from The Close starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Those answers shrink a range right down to a single figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
In The Close and still next to your car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across The Close or wherever in Hampshire.