Weymouth: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
Engine off, ignition off: that's where you begin if AdBlue has gone into your diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is all AdBlue is. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm starts till the engine sucks it through. If your engine hasn't run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car sits in Weymouth. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
Weymouth, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do right away
Do:
- Remove the keys, and that stops anyone switching the power on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which fluid, and roughly what amount? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our technicians can know.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting DT4 8, or the name of the nearest street, gets the van to you without a search.
Do not do these:
- Do not start your engine, even for a moment to move your car.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment your ignition comes on, and so keep the vehicle off.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it is pointless.
- Don't drive the vehicle anywhere, not even a short way up Trinity Road.
- Beside the road, don't attempt emptying it yourself.
Get the attendants to help you move the car off the island if you are at a forecourt in Weymouth, whether it's the Esso or elsewhere. At home, your car remains just as it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Meant for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Kept in a dedicated tank, it's squirted into the exhaust stream to clean the gases. Nothing in it is meant to pass through a fuel pump, and nothing in a fuel pump is built to handle it.
It does not blend. After it's poured into the tank, AdBlue behaves nothing like diesel. 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. When your system runs, the AdBlue is first to go through. Before then it sits underneath the diesel, which is how a vehicle topped up in Southlands last night and never started stays the simple one, as long as no one touches the key.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. It eats at some metals used in fuel systems, working on whatever it touches until it is removed from your system. And once the water goes, the urea forms crystals that block filters and settle in tiny channels. Overnight, a car sitting in Weymouth with AdBlue through its pipework grows worse; where it's only in that tank, nothing changes. The water in it does harm of its own: the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors rely on diesel to lubricate them, and water gives them nothing.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
A fault of thin fuel is what you get after filling a diesel with petrol at the Morrisons. Blended through your diesel and left still, it is no threat at that stage; using the engine does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is an issue of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it cannot simply be run through. It doesn't stay mixed, so it cannot be diluted. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting your motor "to see" costs more here than nearly anywhere else, whether the car is in Lanehouse or the middle of Weymouth.
As with petrol, there is good news. Never run? Then the AdBlue waits only inside your tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever your car has come to rest in Dorset.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Weymouth?
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars waits right next to the diesel filler, sometimes under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Most of the time it takes place with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the drive, not at the pump.
It tends to take place in a few familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up takes place in a hurry outside Holy Trinity Church of England VC Primary School & Community Nursery. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Town Bridge. Else, in dim light outside The Kings Arms, your car is topped up by someone opening that flap the first time.
The least familiar vehicles get it most — rentals, brand-new ones, company cars, and the spare motor in a home with one of each fuel types. An identical mistake, same first response — keep it off — anywhere you are in Weymouth or the rest of Dorset.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Weymouth, and the motor started?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside the tank. It's been pulled through the filter and the fuel lines, and if your engine ran for any time, it has reached your high-pressure pump and your injectors.
You may notice your motor running unevenly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Alexandra Gardens or halfway across Weymouth. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of it through.
Exit the M5, under 50 miles from Weymouth, at the next junction and stop safely, rather than driving on.
Hopping across Weymouth to the car park by Holy Trinity Church is one thing; driving for Wells, under 50 miles away, is something else, because each mile carries the AdBlue further in. So mileage matters. Tell us about how far it had come.
There's more to rinse out once your engine has been run, and we do all of it where the vehicle has ended up. Spotted soon, it very rarely leaves long-term damage.
What draining AdBlue from a diesel involves in Weymouth
Anywhere it has come to rest in Weymouth — a filling station, a layby, a driveway, a street beside St Mary's — our van travels to the car. Three replies shape the work, so before anything else we ask which fluid went in, about the amount, and whether the engine has turned over.
Next, draining the tank on the spot removes the contaminated diesel and the AdBlue in one go. The system is cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. After that, your filter: flushed, or replaced when it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a test of your car. Roughly half an hour on site is usual for most jobs when the engine hasn't run. Our pumping gear is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no fault, and it's hushed enough for a residential street late at night.
Last, your system is bled with clean diesel. You set off as soon as our technicians have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the vehicle is on a driveway around Weymouth or in a bay outside the nearest station. The test before we go is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Weymouth and where it is
Weymouth is a coastal town in Dorset, England, nestled in a bay where the River Wey meets the sea. Located near the county town of Dorchester, it is a notable settlement in the region. The town's sheltered position makes it a distinctive feature of the local landscape. Weymouth is known for its seaside character and natural setting.
AdBlue drains across Dorset, Weymouth included
Rodwell, Melcombe Regis and Westham are among the towns near Weymouth that the same vans serve, along with most of Dorset further out, throughout the DT postcode area. Near a border, or somewhere tricky to explain? Checking is better than assuming, so phone.
Weymouth is a coastal town, and a call-out drain suits it: whether the car is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, and so it never needs to be moved to us.
Weymouth: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
There's no fair single price, because the jobs are not the same. What changes the cost is, first of all, whether the motor has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the vehicle is and whether a technician can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Hope URC Church.
With that reason, every enquiry from Weymouth opens by asking the same trio — which fluid was put in, what quantity, if it ran — before a figure. Their replies narrow the range down to one figure.
Before a van sets off, you hear the price by phone. And you pay on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. Check your insurance while we're on the way: plenty carry misfuelling cover.
Alongside your car in Weymouth, right now?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Tell us it's AdBlue, about what quantity, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Weymouth or wherever in Dorset.