Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Townsend
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition too. Urea dissolved in water is all AdBlue is. The trouble starts once it's pulled through your lines — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. In Townsend, AdBlue in a diesel tank caught before your engine runs usually comes down to a drain and a thorough flush, just where the car is. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Townsend, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do straight away
Things to do:
- Pocket your keys, which stops someone switching the power on.
- Put the hazard lights on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Keep the till receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Give us a postcode starting BH8 0, or whichever street is nearest, and our van reaches you directly — so call from wherever you are.
Never do these:
- Shifting the car even a few yards is no reason to start your motor.
- Don't switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No more fuel on top. The AdBlue will not blend, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, including a short distance down Ibbertson Way.
- Don't try to drain the car yourself by the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the island if you are at a forecourt around Townsend, whether it is the Esso or elsewhere. If you're on your own drive, leave the vehicle just where it sits.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sprayed into the exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel mixes; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. The first thing the fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Littledown last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the easy case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has drawn it in.
It does two kinds of damage from there. What remains once the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they lodge in tiny channels and clog filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in the fuel system, and keeps going till it's flushed out. If the AdBlue is in the lines, leaving it overnight in Townsend makes things worse. In your tank alone, waiting does nothing. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector depend on diesel flowing past them, and so the water content damages them by itself.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel commonly the bigger fault?
Petrol put into a diesel on Tesco's forecourt makes your fuel watery — that is the whole fault. It mixes with your diesel, and while it is inside the tank it causes no damage; the damage comes from running the engine on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Whether your car is in Mill Throop or the centre of Townsend, firing it up "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other error, and the flush counts for more. The reasons: it will not remain mixed, and so diluting it fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the next fill.
With AdBlue, the good news is no different from petrol. If your motor has not run, the AdBlue is still in that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Dorset your car is sitting.
Townsend: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue one and the diesel cap, occasionally behind a single flap — may appear the same. Nobody intends it; plenty of designs allow it. It mostly takes place outside the house, from a container grabbed on the journey home, not at the filling station.
The ways it happens are few and familiar. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Jewell Academy Bournemouth. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Ibbertson Road. Else, in dim light by The Victory, the car is topped up by a driver opening that flap for the first time.
Rented cars, brand-new vehicles, company vehicles, or the spare car in a family with both fuels: the least known vehicles see it the most. Wherever you are in Townsend or the remainder of Dorset, it's the same mistake and the same first answer: leave the vehicle off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Townsend?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. With any running time, it goes on to the injection pump and each injector, having passed through the fuel filter and lines.
Expect rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash, or a cut-out — coming back from Littledown Centre, perhaps, or part way across Townsend. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the vehicle to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M27, under 25 miles from Townsend, at the next junction and park somewhere safe, rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Townsend to the car park by Lansdowne Church Woodbury Avenue is a very different job from a run towards Southampton, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with each mile. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the car came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to clean out once your engine has been started. If it is noticed quickly, permanent damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Townsend?
Anywhere it has stopped in Townsend — a filling station, a lay-by, a drive, a road beside St Barnabas Church — the van travels to your vehicle. Three replies decide the work, so first our technicians ask what was put in, roughly the amount, and if your engine has run.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when the tank is drained, on the spot. Residue from AdBlue won't flush out by itself, so the fuel system gets a careful flush, which counts much more here than with petrol. A test of your vehicle comes at the end, once fresh diesel goes in and the fuel filter is cleaned or, where necessary, replaced. Most of these jobs are a half-hour job once we turn up, provided your engine hasn't run. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Fresh diesel goes in to bleed the fuel system, and that's the final step. At that point we start the engine and you head off, whether from a parking space at Pokesdown or a driveway around Townsend. It's tested on fresh diesel to be sure it runs properly before our technicians head off. Since the job is done in its entirety where your car is, a workshop never comes into it. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both afterwards.
About Townsend, briefly
Townsend is a coastal suburban area in Dorset, situated near the cities of Southampton and Bournemouth. Townsend has a relatively low elevation of around 10 metres above sea level and is close to nearby places such as Haddon Hill and Holdenhurst. Townsend is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, which reflects its development as a residential area. Townsend is home to a population of approximately 4281 residents.
Townsend and Dorset: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs around Townsend also cover the locations about it, Haddon Hill, Holdenhurst and Strouden among them, and most of Dorset beyond, across the BH postcode area. Phone and ask instead of guessing when you're by a border, or anywhere tricky to explain.
No towing is needed. In Townsend, a residential suburb, a van that comes to you fits: your car is emptied where it stands, be it in a drive, a side street, a car park or a forecourt.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in Townsend: the cost of fixing it
There's no fair single price, because the jobs aren't the same. What shifts the price is, firstly, whether your engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue went in; and after that where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Strouden Community Centre.
For that reason, each enquiry from Townsend opens by asking the same trio — what got in, how much, whether the engine ran — ahead of a figure. Those replies narrow the range right down to one figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before anyone leaves; payment comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. As our engineer is on the way, dig out your insurance: plenty include misfuelling.
Townsend: still alongside the car?
In that case, do nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Phone 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, plus if the engine ran are all our engineers need. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder throughout Dorset, Townsend included.