AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Close? Don't Start It
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Not like fuel, it neither ignites nor mixes, and nothing happens until your motor pulls it through. If the motor hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully flushed where your car sits around The Close. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around The Close
Do these:
- 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 went in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting PO19 1, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Not even for a second, and not to shift your car: your engine remains off.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the moment your ignition goes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- Adding more diesel does not work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Even a short stretch up West Pallant is too far to drive it.
- By the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you move the vehicle away from the pumps if you're on a forecourt in The Close, whether it is the Esso or somewhere else. At home, the car remains just as it was left.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The motor isn't what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it's fed into your exhaust, where it treats the gas. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is designed to handle it.
It does not combine. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue acts not at all like diesel. The intake takes fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is exactly where AdBlue settles: being denser than diesel, it sinks. When the pump runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Until then it sits beneath your diesel, which is why a car filled in Portfield yesterday and not switched on stays the straightforward case, as long as no one turns your key.
From there it does two kinds of damage. It attacks certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches until it is cleared from your system. And when the water evaporates, the urea turns into crystals that clog filters and lodge in narrow passages. A car left standing in The Close with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. And there is the water: it offers no protection to the parts that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is commonly more significant than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the Tesco and you have a fault of thin fuel. No damage comes as long as it sits put, blended into your diesel — only once your motor works on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, since it does not burn. Whether the car is in Apuldram or the centre of The Close, turning it over "to see" does more harm in this case than almost any other mistake, and the flush matters for more. Why: it won't remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following fill.
The same good news applies as with petrol. If your engine hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside the tank, and that tank is the quickest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever around West Sussex the vehicle is standing.
The Close: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not on purpose. Many cars have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the forecourt.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. The refill gets hurried outside St Richard's Catholic Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning as the kids were taken in. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a drive near Canon Lane. Else, in dim light outside Trents, your vehicle gets topped up by someone using that flap the first time.
The least known cars get it the most — rentals, new cars, fleet cars, and the spare car of a family with both fuels. Same slip, same first step — leave it off — wherever you happen to be around The Close or the remainder of West Sussex.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in The Close?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and every injector, having passed through the fuel filter and pipework.
Perhaps coming back from Paradise, or midway across The Close, the motor may go rough, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or cut out. No starting it again to check: pull over once safe, then switch it off. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the A3(M), under 15 miles from The Close, at the first junction and park safely, rather than carrying on.
Distance counts: each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system, and so heading for Chichester, under a mile away, gives a far bigger job than hopping across The Close to the car park by Young people's shop. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush takes in more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has come to a stop. Lasting damage is very uncommon when it is noticed early.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves in The Close
Wherever it has stopped around The Close — a filling station, a layby, a drive, a street beside Market Cross — our van comes to the vehicle. Before anything else we ask what went in, about how much, and whether your motor has run, since those answers determine the work.
Next, emptying the tank right there removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue together. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the fuel system is flushed all the way through since what remains won't flush away by itself. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is typical for most jobs where the motor has not run. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to bleed the system on fresh diesel. At that point our engineers start the car and you head off, whether from a parking space outside Chichester or a drive around The Close. Our technicians check it runs smoothly on clean diesel before we go. No workshop is needed at any point, with the whole job done then and there. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers ask for.
About The Close
The Close is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Chichester in West Sussex, with a riverside setting and an elevation of around 17 metres. The Close is characterized by its predominantly flat housing stock, which reflects the area's relatively low-lying terrain. The Close is located close to the city centre of Chichester, with nearby neighbourhoods including Whyke and Stockbridge. The Close has a population of approximately 5433 residents.
AdBlue drains around The Close and across West Sussex
AdBlue call-outs around The Close are passed to teams that cover the towns around it — Chichester, Whyke as well as Stockbridge — and most of West Sussex beyond, across PO postcodes. Phone and check rather than guess when you're close to a county line, or somewhere tricky to explain.
The Close is a residential suburb, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, and so it never needs to be shifted to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in The Close: the cost of fixing it
Since each jobs differ, a single figure wouldn't be fair. Three things change the cost: whether the engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue was put in, and where the vehicle is. That last one rests on whether a van can get to it safely, and an open drive is simpler than a tight gap behind Chichester Cathedral.
Before a figure, never afterwards, every call from The Close begins with three checks: the fuel, the amount, plus if it ran. Those replies turn a range into a straight price.
You get that price by phone, before anyone sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Look at your insurance while we are on the way: plenty include misfuelling cover.
In The Close and still beside your car?
Then, the best thing to do with the car is to not touch it. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and if it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around The Close or anywhere across West Sussex.