Tisbury: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, the ignition remains off and so does your engine. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. It doesn't burn, it does not mix with diesel, and the damage it does begins when your fuel system pulls it in. In Tisbury, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before the engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tisbury: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — that way nobody can switch anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is anywhere near.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and about how much.
- Ring us from where you are. A postcode starting SP3 6, or the name of the nearest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift your car: your motor stays off.
- Plenty of diesels power their pump the instant your ignition comes on, so keep the vehicle off.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Keep the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along The Causeway.
- No draining it yourself, either, at the verge.
On a forecourt in Tisbury, whether it's the the nearest petrol station or another one, ask the attendants to help you push your car away from the petrol pump. At your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your engine. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to clean it. No part in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of it was meant to go that way.
It does not blend. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. It drops, since it is denser than diesel, and settles low where the pickup draws its fuel from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a motor that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Wardour last night, and has not been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
From there it does two kinds of harm. It eats at certain metals found in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches till it is cleared completely. And once the water goes, the urea turns into crystals that block filters and lodge in narrow channels. Overnight, a car parked in Tisbury with AdBlue in its lines gets worse; if it's only in your tank, nothing changes. Water lubricates nothing. The high-pressure pump and every injector need diesel flowing past them, and so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more serious than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the another forecourt nearby, and this problem is diluted fuel. Harm just comes from driving on it. Mixed into the diesel and left inside that tank, it does nothing.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is simply the wrong one. It does not burn, so it can't simply be run through. Whether the vehicle sits in West Hatch or the heart of Tisbury, firing it up "to see" costs more in this case than almost any other slip, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't stay blended, so watering it down is impossible; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest job on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in there — wherever around Wiltshire the car sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tisbury: how it ends up there
It is not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue inlet beside the diesel inlet, occasionally under a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. Mostly it's not the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in at home.
A couple of familiar ways cover most cases. The top-up is rushed outside St John's Church of England Primary School, Tisbury, because your dash flashed with a warning while the children were dropped off. After work, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Beckett Street. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park at The Benett Arms, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
Rented motors, brand-new motors, company motors, or the spare car in a family with one of each: the least known vehicles get it most. Same mistake, same first response — leave it off — anywhere you happen to be around Tisbury or the rest of Wiltshire.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tisbury?
The AdBlue has left your tank, then. It has been pulled through your filter and the lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Maybe coming back from King George's Field Recreation Ground, or midway across Tisbury, the engine may go lumpy, smoke, drop pace, flash the dash or stall. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M27, under 25 miles from Tisbury, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Every mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why crossing Tisbury to park beside Sacred Heart and a drive of under 15 miles for Salisbury are very distinct jobs. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
There's more to rinse out once the engine has been run, and our engineers do all of it where the vehicle has come to a stop. Permanent damage is very unusual when it is caught soon.
Tisbury: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
Our engineers come to the vehicle, wherever it has stopped in Tisbury: a side street near Methodist Church, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Which fluid was put in, roughly the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over: our technicians check before all else, because those shape the work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. A careful flush matters much more after AdBlue than with petrol, because residue won't wash away by itself. Testing your car follows last, once clean diesel is added and your filter is cleaned or, where necessary, swapped. Not run? In that case expect roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the street at night.
The final step is to prime your system on new diesel. At that point our technicians start the engine and you set off, whether from a parking bay by the nearest station or a drive in Tisbury. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it's running smoothly with clean diesel in. As the job is done in full where your car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours afterwards.
About Tisbury, for a moment
Tisbury is a village in south Wiltshire, situated on the banks of the River Nadder at an elevation of around 100 metres. Tisbury lies near the edge of the Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, close to the villages of Tuckingmill and Upper Chicksgrove. Tisbury has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being particularly prevalent, and is located approximately 12 miles from the city of Salisbury. Tisbury is also within commuting distance of London, being around 90 miles to the southwest of the capital.
Tisbury and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Tuckingmill, Upper Chicksgrove and East Hatch are among the towns near Tisbury that the same vans serve, along with most of Wiltshire further out, throughout the SP postcode area. Guessing won't help by a border or somewhere tricky to describe; ring and check.
No moving is needed. In Tisbury, a village, a mobile service fits: the vehicle is emptied where it stands, whether on a driveway, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tisbury: the cost of fixing it
Every job differs, and so not one fixed price would be honest. Three things shift the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where the vehicle is. That last one comes down to whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open drive is easier than a tight spot behind St John the Baptist.
Before any quote, not afterwards, each call from Tisbury opens with the same three checks: the liquid, the quantity, and if it ran. Those answers narrow a range down to one figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear our quote on the phone. Then you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. As the van is on the way, dig out your insurance: many cover misfuelling.
In Tisbury and still next to the car?
Not touching your car is, right now, the best thing you can do. Keys out; engine and ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 and tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Tisbury or anywhere in Wiltshire.