AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in The Soke? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank, keep the motor off then leave the ignition off. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing starts until your motor sucks it through. If the engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually drained and carefully purged where the vehicle stands around The Soke. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in The Soke
To do:
- Keys out — then nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere close.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the quantity, and so do not bin it out.
- Tell us a postcode starting SO23 0, or whichever street lies nearest, and our van finds you straight — so call wherever you are.
Not to do:
- Shifting the car just a short way is no reason to fire up the motor.
- The ignition stays off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run your fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's pointless.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, including a short way down Barfield Close.
- Do not try to drain the car yourself at the roadside.
Ask the people behind the counter to help you roll your vehicle off the pumps if you're on a forecourt around The Soke, whether it is the BP or somewhere else. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle precisely where it sits.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. From a separate tank it is fed directly to your exhaust, treating what the motor emits. A fuel pump is not designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, once poured in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. It sinks, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake takes its supply from. A vehicle filled on a drive in St Giless Hill yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the straightforward one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up yet — but once the engine turns, that's what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. Crystals and corrosion. As the water evaporates, it strands urea that hardens in filter elements and tiny passages; and, since it attacks certain metals, every part it touches keeps suffering for as long as it stays in there. A car left standing in The Soke with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and every injector as it passes; water offers none of that, which is a second form of harm.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel often the bigger issue?
Put petrol in a diesel at the Esso and you have a problem of thin fuel. No damage is done while it sits put, mixed into your diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another matter: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. It does not burn, and so it cannot simply be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back from the diesel, and so thinning it won't work. Hence the flush matters so much, and turning your key "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Bar End or the centre of The Soke alike.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Clearing a tank is the simplest job on any fuel system, and without start-up, the AdBlue remains in there — anywhere in Hampshire your vehicle has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in The Soke?
Plenty of vehicles put the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and after dark the two may look identical. No one intends it. Mostly it is never the forecourt: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and tips it in outside the house.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. The refill is rushed outside All Saints Church of England Primary School, because the dash flashed with a warning while the kids were taken off. Someone pours the container in at home, right off Chesil Street, as the day ends. Otherwise, in dim light by Black Boy, the vehicle is refilled by a driver using that flap for the first time.
It happens most in the vehicles people know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Keep it off: that's the first response to an identical slip, anywhere in The Soke or the rest of Hampshire you are.
Already started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank in The Soke?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. The filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running time carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might show up, maybe midway across The Soke or returning from The Weirs. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the vehicle to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the Winchester Bypass, under a mile from The Soke, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across The Soke to the car park by Chesil Theatre is a very different job from a run towards Winchester, under a mile away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with every mile. Tell us about how far it had come.
There is more to clean out once the engine has been started, and our technicians do all of it where your car has ended up. Noticed early, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in The Soke?
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road near St Giles Hill Lower Viewpoint, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in The Soke, and our van comes to it. Three replies shape the work, and so before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly the amount, and if the engine has run.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when the tank is emptied, right there. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, the flush matters: the whole system is flushed all the way through because residue won't wash away by itself. Next, your filter: flushed, or changed when it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of the car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our technicians arrive, provided your motor has not run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no fault, and it's quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. You set off as soon as our technicians have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether your car is on a driveway around The Soke or in a bay outside Winchester. It is tested on clean diesel to make sure it runs properly before our engineers head off. Because the job is done in full where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About The Soke itself
The Soke is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Hampshire, with The Soke being close to the city of Winchester and having a mix of terraced housing. The Soke sits at an elevation of 41 metres, with The Soke being part of the wider Winchester urban area. The Soke is located near other places such as Highcliffe and Wharf Hill, with The Soke having a population of around 5864 residents.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, The Soke included
Over the SO postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs around The Soke serve much of Hampshire as well, Highcliffe, Wharf Hill and Winchester included. Assuming doesn't help by a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; phone and check.
A mobile service fits The Soke, a residential suburb: you have no need to bring the vehicle to us, since we empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around The Soke: the cost of fixing it
There is no honest single price, because the jobs are not the same. The price shifts first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Beech Lookout.
Before any quote, never after, each enquiry from The Soke begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the amount, and whether the engine ran. Those replies narrow a range down to one number.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before a van leaves; payment happens on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. As the van is travelling, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Still alongside your car in The Soke?
Not touching the car is, then, the best thing you can do. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103 and tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in The Soke or anywhere across Hampshire.