AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Tower Hill? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does the motor. Urea dissolved in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble just comes when the pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Tower Hill, is generally all AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your engine has run. Ring 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Tower Hill: the first few minutes
Do these:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- The empty bottle or your receipt tells us the product and the amount, and so don't bin it out.
- Call just where you are. Say a RH13 0 postcode or the nearest street sign, and no one has to hunt for you.
Not to do:
- Moving the car just a short way is no reason to start the engine.
- The ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, turning it on is enough to run your pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not mix, and so it is pointless.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short way down Salisbury Road.
- No draining it yourself, at all, on the roadside.
Rolling the car off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever Tower Hill forecourt you are on, the Shell or any other. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Nothing in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to travel that way.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, once poured in, will not. Its behaviour is nothing like diesel's. It sinks, because it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in The Common last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
Two kinds of damage 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 running on the parts it reaches for as long as it remains there. If the AdBlue is in the pipework, leaving it overnight around Tower Hill makes it worse. In that tank only, waiting costs nothing. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
A fault of thinned fuel is what you end up with after filling a diesel with petrol at the Sainsbury's. Harm only comes from running on it. Blended into the diesel and sitting inside your tank, it causes nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Nor can it be thinned, since it separates back out — and the following tankful will not clear away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Tower Hill or out in Broadbridge Heath, costs more than almost any other slip.
As with petrol, there's good news. Clearing a tank is the easiest part on any fuel system, and without running, the AdBlue remains in it — wherever across West Sussex your car has stopped.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Tower Hill?
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind one flap — can look the same. Nobody means it; plenty of layouts allow it. A container bought when driving home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the usual route.
Usually, it takes place in one of a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside Arunside School, Horsham, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Tower Hill. Or a driver new to that flap refills the car after dark, stopped in the car park by The Boar's Head.
The least familiar cars get it the most — rentals, new ones, company ones, and the spare car in a family with one of each fuels. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, wherever in Tower Hill or the remainder of West Sussex you are.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Tower Hill, and the motor started?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. It's been drawn through your filter and your lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has got to your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may see your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Alder Copse or halfway across Tower Hill. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. More of that is pulled through with each start.
If you were on the M23, under 10 miles from Tower Hill, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere safe rather than pressing on.
Hopping across Tower Hill to the car park by Horsham Family Hub is one thing; driving towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, is another, since every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So mileage matters. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Once the engine has been started, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it's spotted early.
Tower Hill: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
Our technicians come to the car, wherever it has stopped around Tower Hill: a side street near Blackbridge Community Centre, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. Before anything else our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run, because those answers settle the work.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and all of the contaminated diesel and the urea come out as one. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing matters: the fuel system is cleaned all the way through since what remains won't wash out by itself. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and after that the car is tested. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming the fuel system with clean diesel comes last. Starting it comes next, and then you head off from where the car is parked, at Christs Hospital or on a drive in Tower Hill. Our technicians confirm it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over afterwards.
About Tower Hill itself
Tower Hill is a small village in West Sussex, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 68 metres. Tower Hill lies near the towns of Horsham and New Town, and is connected to nearby Southwater Street. Tower Hill has a population of around 768 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Tower Hill is located near Brighton and Hove, and is also within commuting distance of London, being approximately 32.7 miles away.
Tower Hill and West Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Over the RH postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue call-outs in Tower Hill serve much of West Sussex too, Horsham, New Town and Southwater Street among them. Ring and check rather than guess if you are by a county line, or somewhere awkward to explain.
Tower Hill is a village, and an on-site drain suits it: whether your car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it stands, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Tower Hill: the cost of fixing it
Not one flat figure would be fair, since each job differs. Three things move the price: whether your engine has run and for how long, how much AdBlue got in, and where your car is. That last one comes down to whether our van can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight space behind Fluvius.
Ahead of a quote, not after, each enquiry from Tower Hill begins with the same three checks: the fuel, the quantity, plus if the engine ran. Given them, a range shrinks to one fixed number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. As the van is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
Still next to your car around Tower Hill?
Then, touch nothing — that's the best move there is. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Tower Hill or wherever in West Sussex.