AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Upton Grey? Keep It Switched Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the motor. In plain terms, AdBlue is just urea in water. The trouble starts once it is sucked through your lines — it will not ignite, and it won't blend with diesel. Caught before your motor has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Upton Grey. Call 0333 366 0103 before you do anything else.
Upton Grey, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do these:
- Remove the keys, and that prevents someone turning the electrics on.
- If you're at all close to moving traffic, put your hazards on.
- Hold on to your receipt or the empty bottle, so you can tell us what was put in and roughly how much.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting RG25 2, or simply the name of a street close by, and so call from the car.
Things not to do:
- Moving the car even a few yards is no reason to start your engine.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than thinning.
- Don't drive the car anywhere, not even a short way up Greywell Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
Moving your car away from the island is a job for staff to help with, whichever Upton Grey forecourt you are on, the Texaco included. At your own driveway, do not touch it at all.
What does AdBlue do in a diesel tank?
Not the motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue is meant to go. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it's fed into the exhaust, where it treats the fumes. A fuel pump is not designed to cope with it, and AdBlue was never intended to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it stays separate rather than mixing — entirely different from fuel. It is heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and gathers at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Weston Corbett last night and hasn't turned since. The liquid sits at the foot of the tank, untouched — but it would be first through if your motor runs, before any diesel at all.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. What remains when the water goes is urea, which forms crystals: they settle in tiny channels and block filters. Worse, it eats at some metals in a fuel system, and keeps going till it is flushed out. A vehicle left sitting around Upton Grey with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. 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
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Esso, and the problem is thinned fuel. Harm just comes from running on it. Blended into your diesel and sitting in the tank, it does none.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the liquid itself is plainly the wrong one. Not burning, it cannot just be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the following tankful will not rinse away crystals or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and trying your engine "to see", in the centre of Upton Grey or out in Weston Patrick, costs more than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there is good news. If the motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still inside that tank, and the tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever in Hampshire the car is sitting.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Upton Grey?
After dark, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap — can look the same. Nobody means it; many layouts allow it. It mostly happens at home, from a container grabbed en route home, rather than at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside Long Sutton Church of England Primary School, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills your car. After work, a bottle goes in on a drive close to Manor House. Else, after dark outside Hoddington Arms, your car gets refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It occurs most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second vehicle of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to the same mistake, wherever around Upton Grey or the remainder of Hampshire you happen to be.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Upton Grey, and the engine started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. The fuel filter and lines have had it pulled through, and any running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, dropping power, dashboard lights or stalling: any may appear, maybe midway across Upton Grey or returning from Embers Copse. No restarting to test: stop once it is safe, then turn it off. Every start pulls more of it through.
If you were on the M3, under 3 miles from Upton Grey, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across Upton Grey to the car park by St Mary’s Church is a very different job from a run towards Winchester, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with each mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Our technicians do all of the cleaning where the vehicle has stopped, and once the engine has run there is more of it. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves long-term damage.
Upton Grey: how AdBlue is emptied from a diesel
A road by Upton Grey House, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt: wherever the vehicle has stopped in Upton Grey, we travel to it. The job rests on three replies, and our engineers ask for first — what was put in, the quantity, and whether the engine has turned over.
The polluted diesel and the urea come out as one when that tank is drained, on the spot. The system is purged thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Roughly half an hour once we arrive is usual for most jobs where the engine has not run. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no problem, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Clean diesel goes in to bleed the system, and that's the last step. Whether it is a parking space at Hook or a drive around Upton Grey, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. The test before we leave is that it runs correctly on new diesel. No workshop is required at any point, with the entire job done then and there. You get a VAT invoice and an engineer report later, which is what insurers ask for.
About Upton Grey, for a moment
Upton Grey is a small village in Hampshire, situated in the South East of England, with a population of around 516 people. Upton Grey sits in a rural area at an elevation of 126 metres, approximately 17.8 miles from Winchester and 42.3 miles from London. Upton Grey is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, with nearby villages including Little Hoddington, Bidden, and Tunworth.
AdBlue drains across Upton Grey and Hampshire
Little Hoddington, Bidden and Tunworth are among the places around Upton Grey that the same teams reach, along with much of Hampshire further out, throughout the RG postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere hard to describe; ring and check.
A van that comes to you fits Upton Grey, a rural village: you have no need to bring the car to us, because our engineers empty it there, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right around Upton Grey
There is no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. The cost moves first with how long, if at all, your engine has been running, and next with the amount of AdBlue that went in. After that it depends on where the car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Upton Grey Village Hall.
Which fluid got in, how much, plus whether the engine ran: each Upton Grey enquiry begins by asking precisely those, before a figure, not afterwards. The replies turn a range into a straight quote.
The price is given on the call, before anyone sets off; settling up happens on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
Upton Grey: still alongside your car?
Then, do nothing — that is the most helpful move available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Upton Grey or anywhere within Hampshire.