AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in The Ham? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave the engine off — and the ignition as well. Water with urea dissolved in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble begins once it's pulled through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and carefully cleaned where the car sits around The Ham. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, The Ham: AdBlue in your diesel tank
To do:
- So no one can switch the ignition on, take your keys out.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what got in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting BA13 4, or whichever street is nearest, and the van reaches you straight — so call wherever you stand.
Never:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your vehicle: your motor remains off.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding more fuel will not thin it.
- Even a short stretch along Station Road is too far to drive the car.
- By the road, don't try draining it on your own.
The attendants working at any The Ham filling station — the Esso included — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. Not one side fits the other: urea doesn't belong in an injection pump, and an injection pump can't deal with urea.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after poured in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It sinks, since it's heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. Once your pump runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it waits beneath your diesel, which is why a car topped up in Norleaze last night and never switched on remains the straightforward case, provided no one turns the key.
Two kinds of harm follow from there. 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 working on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. A car left standing in The Ham with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water part damages them in its own right.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol put into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that is the whole problem. No harm is done while it sits unused, blended into the diesel — only when your motor runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It doesn't burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, and so it can't be diluted. And crystals and corrosion do not wash out with the next tank of fuel. That is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the engine "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the vehicle is in Dursley or the middle of The Ham.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Anywhere around Wiltshire the vehicle has stopped, an unstarted motor means the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in The Ham?
Many motors put the AdBlue filler alongside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and after dark the two can appear the same. Nobody means it. A bottle picked up when driving home and tipped in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical story.
Mostly, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Rushing, outside Westbury Church of England Junior School, after a warning light flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up your car. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Brook Lane. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Railway Inn, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a rental, a new car, a company car, or the other motor of a family with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers know least. Wherever you're in The Ham or the remainder of Wiltshire, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in The Ham?
Then the AdBlue has left that tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked through, and any running carries it on to the injection pump and each injector.
Expect rough running, exhaust smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash, or a stall — coming back from Vivash Park, perhaps, or part way across The Ham. Once safe, stop and switch it off — without restarting to test. Each start pulls more of it through.
The Ham sits under 25 miles from the M4; if you were on it, exit at the next junction and pull up somewhere safe rather than driving on.
Mileage matters: every mile pushes the AdBlue further in, so driving towards Bath, under 15 miles away, makes a much bigger job than crossing The Ham to the car park by Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
Our engineers do all of the flushing where your car has come to a stop, and once the engine has been run there is more of it. If it's noticed quickly, long-term damage is very unusual.
Emptying AdBlue in a diesel in The Ham: what it takes
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped in The Ham: a side street near The Phone Box Gallery, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our engineers ask what went in, about how much, and whether the motor has run, since those replies determine the work.
Then your tank is cleared where your car stands, so the tainted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't wash out on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once our technicians arrive, if the motor has not run. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and safe on a working forecourt, our pumps are explosion-proof.
Clean diesel goes in to prime the system, and that is the final step. Starting it comes next, and then you set off from where your car is parked, outside Westbury or on a drive in The Ham. It is checked on new diesel to confirm it runs correctly before our technicians head off. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — each handed over once the job is done.
About The Ham
The Ham is a suburban area in Wiltshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 71 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. The Ham lies near the city of Bath, approximately 10 miles away, and is also close to nearby places such as Hawkeridge, Westbury, and Penleigh. The Ham has a population of around 2030 residents, making it a relatively small community. The Ham is located in the South West region of England, about 91 miles from London.
The Ham and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
AdBlue jobs in The Ham go to teams that cover the places near it — Hawkeridge, Westbury plus Penleigh — and much of Wiltshire beyond, across BA postcodes. Guessing doesn't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
No moving is needed. In The Ham, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: the vehicle is drained where it stands, whether in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around The Ham?
There is no fair single quote, because the jobs are not the same. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open drive is simpler for a technician to get to safely than a tight space behind Westbury Library.
That's why each call from The Ham starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. Those answers turn a range into a straight quote.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, the job is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Look at your insurance while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Next to the vehicle in The Ham, still?
In that case, do nothing — that is the most helpful move there is. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, roughly how much, plus if the engine ran are everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder across Wiltshire, The Ham included.