AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Upton? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in your diesel tank, your ignition stays off and so does your engine. Water with urea mixed in it: that's AdBlue. The trouble starts once it's sucked through the pump — it will not burn, and it won't combine with diesel. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the vehicle stands around Upton. Before anything, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Upton, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- Keys out — that way no one can switch anything on.
- If you're at all near moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Keep the receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BH16 5, or the name of the closest street, brings the van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Shifting your car even a few yards is no reason to start the engine.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant the ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- AdBlue does not mix in diesel — it separates out — so adding extra diesel will not thin it.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance down Blandford Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt draining it on your own.
Moving your car away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Upton forecourt you're on, the Esso included. Parked on your own drive? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not your motor but your exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into the exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in it is supposed to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is made to handle it.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, will not. The behaviour is not at all like diesel's. The pickup sucks fuel from the lowest part of that tank, and that is precisely where AdBlue settles: being heavier than diesel, it sinks. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Creekmoor last night, and has not been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of your tank, and nothing has pulled it in.
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, so it keeps running on the parts it gets to for as long as it stays there. Pipes carrying AdBlue spell harm overnight for a vehicle sitting in Upton. Just in the tank, it stays stable. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is frequently worse
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Shell's forecourt leaves the fuel thin — that is the whole issue. No damage is done as long as it sits put, mixed into the diesel — only once your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is a different matter: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot simply be run through, because it doesn't burn. Deposits and corrosion stay after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits again from the diesel, and so watering it can't help. Hence the flush matters more, and trying your engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Ham Hill or the heart of Upton equally.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits just in the tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, anywhere your car has come to rest across Dorset.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Upton: how it ends up there
Nobody means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to the diesel filler, occasionally under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it occurs with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
Mostly, it happens in one of a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Upton Infant School. Someone pours the container in at home, just off Poole Road, as the day ends. One more pattern: darkness, the car park outside the pub in the village, and someone opening that flap the first time.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new car, a company car, or the second motor of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Same slip, same first step — leave it off — wherever you are in Upton or the remainder of Dorset.
Already started the motor with AdBlue in the diesel tank in Upton?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and pipework have had it sucked through, and some running time takes it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
You may see the motor running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Jubilee Garden or halfway across Upton. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart the car to check. Each start pulls more of that through.
If you were on the M27, under 25 miles from Upton, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere safe instead of pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue further in. That is why crossing Upton to park beside Upton Library and a drive of under 50 miles for Salisbury are very different jobs. About how far it had come is worth telling us.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where your car has ended up, and once your engine has been run there is more of it. Very rarely does it leave permanent damage if it's spotted quickly.
What clearing AdBlue from a diesel involves in Upton
A street beside St Dunstan, a driveway, a lay-by or a filling station: wherever your car has come to rest around Upton, we travel to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what got in, roughly how much, and if your engine has been run, because those answers settle the work.
Then the tank is emptied where your car waits, so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. What remains from AdBlue will not wash away by itself, and so the whole system gets a full flush, which matters much more here than with petrol. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or replaced when it must be. After that fresh diesel, and then a check of your car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers get there, provided the motor hasn't run. The pumps are explosion-proof, fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
Priming your system with new diesel comes at the end. After that our engineers fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space at Hamworthy or a drive in Upton. It's tested on clean diesel to confirm it runs smoothly before our engineers head off. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a garage. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — each handed over once this job is done.
About Upton and where it is
Upton is a coastal village in Dorset, situated near the shores of Poole Harbour at an elevation of around 21 metres. Upton lies close to nearby places such as Turlin Moor and Beacon Hill, and is also near the sandy beaches of Rockley Sands. Upton has a population of approximately 4360 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Upton is located about 25 miles from the city of Salisbury and 98 miles from London.
Upton and Dorset: AdBlue drains across the area
Our teams that answer AdBlue call-outs in Upton also cover the spots about it, Turlin Moor, Beacon Hill and Rockley Sands among them, and most of Dorset beyond, across the BH postcode area. Guessing doesn't help by a county line or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
A mobile service suits Upton, a coastal village: there's no need to bring the car to us, because our engineers drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a car park or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out around Upton?
Every job is different, and so not one single quote is fair. The price moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that went in. After that it rests on where the vehicle is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Lychett Bay Viewpoint.
What went in, how much, plus if the engine ran: each Upton call opens with precisely that, before any quote, never afterwards. The answers turn a range into a straight quote.
The quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
In Upton and still alongside the car?
Right now, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across Upton or anywhere within Dorset, after you ring 0333 366 0103 to say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether it ran.