AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in West Town? Keep It Switched Off
Motor off, ignition off: that is how you start if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Water with urea dissolved in it: that is AdBlue. The trouble starts once it's pulled through your pump — it won't burn, and it will not combine with diesel. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally drained and carefully cleaned where the car sits around West Town. Nothing comes before ringing 0333 366 0103.
West Town, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can power anything on.
- Put the hazards on if you're anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Hold on to the till receipt or the empty bottle, and so you can tell us what went in and about how much.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting BN6 9, or the name of the nearest street, gets our van to you without a search.
Never do these:
- Moving your car even a few yards is no reason to fire up the motor.
- Do not switch your ignition on. On many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel does not help: AdBlue separates out instead of thinning.
- Leave the car where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Albourne Road.
- Do not try to drain the vehicle yourself at the roadside.
Moving your vehicle off the island is a job for attendants to help with, whichever West Town forecourt you are on, the Esso or any other. If you are on your own drive, leave it precisely where it sits.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. Stored in a dedicated tank, it's injected into the exhaust to treat the gases. Neither side fits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump cannot take urea.
Inside a diesel tank it behaves really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of that tank, which is where the pickup draws fuel from. Simplest of all: one that got AdBlue in Albourne Street overnight and has not turned since. The AdBlue waits at the base of the tank, undrawn — though it would be first through if the motor starts, before any diesel at all.
It causes two kinds of harm 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 labouring on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. Overnight, a car parked around West Town with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it is just inside your tank, it doesn't. Diesel lubricates the injection pump and each injector as it flows; water offers none of that, and that is a separate form of harm.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
An issue of thin fuel is what you get from filling a diesel with petrol at the Tesco. Blended into your diesel and left unused, it's harmless at that stage; using the engine is the damage.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong liquid. It doesn't burn, and so it can't simply be run through. Whether the car sits in Bedlam Street or the centre of West Town, turning it over "to see" costs more in this case than nearly any other slip, and the flush counts for more. Why: it won't stay blended, so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion outlast the following fill.
The same good news holds as with petrol. Anywhere across West Sussex the car has stopped, an unstarted engine means the AdBlue still in the reservoir: the easiest part of a fuel system to empty.
West Town: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
After dark, two caps side by side — the AdBlue cap and the diesel cap, now and then behind one flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs allow it. Mostly it's never the filling station: someone picks up a container heading home and tips it in outside the house.
It tends to take place in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard warns, and outside St Lawrence CofE Primary School the top-up is hurried. Near Bullfinch Lane, someone pours a container in on the drive after work. Otherwise, after dark by The Horse Inn Hurst, your car is topped up by someone using that flap for the first time.
The least familiar cars see it the most — rentals, new cars, company cars, and the other vehicle in a family with one of each fuels. Wherever you're around West Town or the remainder of West Sussex, it's the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around West Town?
Then that tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Given any running, it travels to the high-pressure pump and every injector, after passing through the filter and pipework.
You may see the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, perhaps on the way back from Coombe Wood or halfway across West Town. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and do not restart it to check. With each start, more of that is pulled through.
If you were on the M23, under 15 miles from West Town, come off at the next exit and stop somewhere sensible rather than pressing on.
Mileage counts: each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in, and so heading towards Brighton and Hove, under 10 miles away, gives a much bigger job than hopping across West Town to the car park by Holy Trinity Church. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
We do all of the rinsing where your car has stopped, and once the motor has run there is more of it. If it is caught early, long-term damage is very unusual.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around West Town?
A street by Albourne Village Hall, a driveway, a layby or a filling station: wherever your vehicle has come to rest in West Town, we travel to it. The job depends on three answers, which our engineers get before all else — what went in, the amount, and whether the motor has turned over.
Next, emptying your tank right there removes the contaminated diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. The system is flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in once the filter is flushed — or replaced, when it needs to be — and then your car is tested. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour job once we arrive, provided the engine hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, so a live filling station is no fault, and it is hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Finally, the system is bled with new diesel. After that our engineers fire it up and you drive off, whether from a parking bay by Hassocks or a driveway around West Town. The test before our engineers go is that it runs correctly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do it all wherever the car has stopped, and it never needs to be taken to a garage. Afterwards, there is paperwork for your insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About West Town, for a moment
West Town is a suburban area situated on the riverside in West Sussex, with an elevation of 49 metres. West Town lies approximately 8 miles from Brighton and Hove, and is close to nearby places such as Albourne, Hurstpierpoint, and Albourne Green. West Town has a population of around 1451 people, and its predominant housing stock consists of semi-detached homes. West Town is also within commuting distance of London, being around 39.6 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains across West Town and West Sussex
AdBlue jobs around West Town go to vans that serve the places around it — Albourne, Hurstpierpoint as well as Albourne Green — and most of West Sussex beyond, throughout BN postcodes. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask instead of guessing.
A mobile service suits West Town, a residential suburb: you have no need to take the vehicle to us, since our technicians drain it there, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What does AdBlue in a diesel tank cost to sort out in West Town?
There is no honest single price, because the jobs aren't the same. The cost changes first with how long, if at all, the engine has been running, and next with the quantity of AdBlue that got in. After that it rests on where your car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight gap behind Brethren's Gospel Hall.
For that reason, every call from West Town begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid got in, how much, whether it ran — before a quote. The replies turn a range into a straight price.
Before a van sets off, you hear our price on the phone. Then payment is on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While our engineer is on the way, check your policy: plenty cover misfuelling.
West Town: still alongside the vehicle?
Then, the best thing to do with the vehicle is to leave it. Keys out, motor off, ignition off. Phone 0333 366 0103 then tell us it is AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around West Town or anywhere across West Sussex.