AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in West Marina? Keep It Switched Off
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep the engine off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. Unlike fuel, it neither ignites nor blends, and nothing happens till your engine pulls it round. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in West Marina. Before you do anything else, ring 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank around West Marina
Do:
- Pocket your keys, and that stops anyone turning the electrics on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can tell us which liquid it was and about what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- Our van finds you fastest with a postcode starting TN38 0, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so phone from the car.
Do not do these:
- Shifting the vehicle even a short way is no reason to start your engine.
- Plenty of diesels run their fuel pump the instant your ignition comes on, so leave it off.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out instead of blending.
- Even a short stretch down Cinque Ports Way is too far to drive the vehicle.
- No draining it yourself, either, on the roadside.
At a forecourt around West Marina, whether it is the JET or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle away from the pump. At home, the car stays exactly where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
AdBlue is made for your exhaust, not your motor. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
It doesn't combine. Once it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves not at all like diesel. It sinks, since it is heavier than diesel, and pools down where the intake draws its supply from. The first thing your fuel system pulls through, after it runs, is the AdBlue. So a car that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Glyne Gap last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of that tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
After it is pulled in, the damage comes in two forms. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it leaves urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow passages; meanwhile, since it attacks some metals, every part it reaches suffers for as long as it remains inside. Lines holding AdBlue mean damage overnight for a vehicle sitting around West Marina. Only in the tank, it stays the same. The water in it does damage of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors depend on diesel to lubricate them, and water offers them nothing.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Top up a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Esso, and the problem is thinned fuel. No harm is done as long as it sits unused, blended into your diesel — only when the engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, yet no fuel at all. Because it does not burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, because it separates again — and the next fill will not clear away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more here, and turning your key "to see", in the heart of West Marina or out in St Leonards Green, does more harm than nearly any other mistake.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Not run? Then the AdBlue sits only in the tank, the simplest bit of the entire system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has stopped around East Sussex.
AdBlue in a diesel tank in West Marina: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of motors rests right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it's never the filling station: someone buys a container driving home and pours it in at home.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. Hurrying, outside St Leonards Church of England Primary Academy, after a warning lamp came on during the school run, someone refills your car. A driver tips the container in at home, right off Bexhill Road, as the day ends. Or the car is topped up in the car park at Bo Peep, in poor light, by a person who has never opened that flap before.
It happens most in the motors motorists know least: a hire car, a new vehicle, a company car, or the second car of a household with one diesel and one petrol. Wherever you're around West Marina or the rest of East Sussex, it's the same error and the same first answer: leave it off.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank in West Marina?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. It has been sucked through your filter and the fuel lines, and if the engine ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and your injectors.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: any might appear, perhaps midway across West Marina or coming back from West Marina Gardens. No restarting to test: pull over once safe, then switch it off. More of it is pulled through with each start.
Exit the M20, under 50 miles from West Marina, by the first junction and park safely, rather than driving on.
How far it went counts. A few hundred yards across West Marina to the car park by TK Maxx is a very different job from a run towards Brighton and Hove, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Wherever the car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the engine has been running. When it is spotted early, lasting damage is very uncommon.
West Marina: how AdBlue is cleared from a diesel
We come to the car, wherever it has stopped in West Marina: a side street close to St Ethelburga, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt. The job rests on three replies, which our engineers get first — which fluid was put in, the amount, and whether your engine has turned over.
Right there, that tank is then emptied, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea leave at once. With AdBlue, far more than with petrol, flushing counts: the fuel system is cleaned right through because residue won't flush away unaided. After that, the filter: cleaned, or changed when it must be. Then clean diesel, then a test of the vehicle. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The pumps are explosion-proof, safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
The final step is to prime the system on fresh diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have started it, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in West Marina or in a space outside West St Leonards. The check before our engineers leave is that it runs smoothly on clean diesel. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, so it never needs to go to a garage. Insurers ask for a VAT invoice and an engineer report, and you get both at the end.
About West Marina itself
West Marina is a coastal locality in East Sussex, situated near the towns of St Leonards-on-Sea and Hastings. West Marina lies at a low elevation of around 1 metre, adjacent to the sea and close to the neighbouring areas of Harley Shute and Bulverhythe. West Marina is characterized by its terraced housing and forms part of the larger conurbation along the Sussex coast.
West Marina and East Sussex: AdBlue drains across the area
Harley Shute, Bulverhythe and St Leonards-on-Sea are among the places around West Marina that the same teams serve, along with much of East Sussex beyond, over the TN postcode area. Assuming doesn't help close to a county line or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and ask.
A van that comes to you fits West Marina, a coastal area: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, because our technicians drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
West Marina: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since each jobs differ, a flat price wouldn't be honest. What changes the cost is, first, whether the engine has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where the car is and whether a van can get to it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind Harold and Edith.
Before any figure, never afterwards, each call from West Marina begins with three questions: the liquid, the amount, plus whether it ran. When those are answered, a range turns into one fixed figure.
Our quote is quoted on the call, before a van sets off; payment happens on the day, by card or by phone, and nothing upfront. Check your insurance while we are on the way: many include misfuelling cover.
In West Marina and still beside the car?
Then, touch nothing — that's the best move there is. Ignition off, motor off, keys out. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, across West Marina or wherever within East Sussex, once you phone 0333 366 0103 to say it's AdBlue, roughly what quantity, and whether the engine ran.