Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Winchelsea Beach
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition as well. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. The trouble begins once it is sucked through the pump — it won't ignite, and it won't combine with diesel. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Winchelsea Beach, is normally all AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
Winchelsea Beach, AdBlue in the diesel tank: what to do at once
Do:
- So nobody can switch the ignition on, take your keys away.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all near.
- So you can give us which liquid it was and about what quantity, save the receipt or the empty bottle.
- Call just where you are. Say a TN36 4 postcode or the closest street name, and no one has to hunt for you.
Things not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your car: the motor remains off.
- Do not switch the ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- Adding extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue settles out rather than blending.
- Leave it where it is instead of driving it anywhere, even a short distance along Sea Road.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the roadside.
The attendants on duty at any Winchelsea Beach filling station — the Murco among them — will normally help pushing it clear if you ask. On that drive, your car remains just where it was left.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Not your motor but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Kept in a separate tank, it's squirted into the exhaust to treat the fumes. No part in an injection pump is designed for this fluid — and no part of that was meant to travel through one.
Fuel blends; AdBlue, after tipped in, won't. Its behaviour is not at all like fuel's. Heavier than diesel, it drops and pools underneath it — the very spot the pickup draws from. A motor topped up on a driveway in Icklesham yesterday evening and not started since is the simple one. Nothing has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once the motor turns, that is what is pulled first, straight from the bottom of that tank.
It does two kinds of damage from there. Crystals and corrosion. As the water dries, it strands urea that crystallises in filter elements and narrow channels; and, because it attacks certain metals, each part it touches suffers for as long as it stays in there. Where the AdBlue is in the pipework, waiting till morning in Winchelsea Beach makes things worse. Inside that tank only, waiting costs nothing. Water protects nothing. The high-pressure pump and each injector need diesel running through them, so the water content damages them in its own right.
Why is AdBlue in a diesel frequently the bigger issue?
A problem of thinned fuel is what you end up with from filling a diesel with petrol at the JET. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it is inside that tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running your motor on it.
The trouble with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely wrong substance. Not burning, it can't simply be run through. Nor can it be thinned, since it splits back out — and the following tankful won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush counts more with AdBlue, and turning the key "to see", in the heart of Winchelsea Beach or out in Rye, costs more than almost any other mistake.
As with petrol, there is good news. Wherever around East Sussex your vehicle has stopped, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue yet inside the tank: the simplest bit of a fuel system to clear.
Winchelsea Beach: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
It is not deliberate. Many cars keep the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, occasionally under one flap, and mixing them up is simple after dark. It usually occurs at home, from a bottle grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside St Thomas' Church of England Aided Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, someone tops up your car. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway close to Dogs Hill Road. Or someone new to that flap refills your car after dark, stopped in the car park by Pub 31.
It takes place most in the cars people know least: a hire car, a new car, 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 an identical slip, anywhere in Winchelsea Beach or the rest of East Sussex you happen to be.
Winchelsea Beach: started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then the tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. Through the filter, along the pipework, and — given any running — into the high-pressure pump and every injector: that is how far it travels.
Maybe coming back from Harbour Field Recreation Ground, or midway across Winchelsea Beach, your engine may go rough, smoke, lose power, light up the dash or cut out. When safe, stop then switch everything off — without restarting to test. Each start pulls more of that through.
On the M20, under 25 miles from Winchelsea Beach, the first junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to park — not driving on.
Distance counts: every mile pushes the AdBlue deeper into your system, so driving for Canterbury, under 50 miles away, makes a much bigger job than hopping across Winchelsea Beach to the car park by St Richard. Roughly how far it had come is worth telling us.
Once your engine has been run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where the car has come to a stop. When it's spotted early, long-term damage is very rare.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel around Winchelsea Beach: what it takes
The car stays where it is, whether that is a street near Church of the Grey Friars, a drive, a lay-by or a filling station in Winchelsea Beach, and the van travels to it. Before anything else our technicians ask what got in, roughly how much, and whether your motor has run, since those replies determine this work.
The contaminated diesel and the urea come out together when the tank is emptied, right there. A full flush matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not clear away on its own. Your filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Not run? In that case count on roughly half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps make a live forecourt sensible to work on, and they're quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Bleeding the system with fresh diesel comes last. Starting it comes next, and then you drive off from where your car is parked, by Winchelsea or on a driveway in Winchelsea Beach. The check before our technicians go is that it runs properly on clean diesel. Our engineers do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. Afterwards, there is the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer.
About Winchelsea Beach and where it is
Winchelsea Beach is a small coastal village in East Sussex, situated near the historic town of Winchelsea and the harbour at Rye. Winchelsea Beach lies at a low elevation of around 4 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Winchelsea Beach is located approximately 55 miles from London and 29 miles from Canterbury, making it a relatively secluded residential community. Winchelsea Beach has a small population of around 562 people, with nearby Cock Marling also being a notable neighbouring location.
AdBlue drains across East Sussex, Winchelsea Beach included
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs around Winchelsea Beach also cover the locations round it, Winchelsea, Rye Harbour and Cock Marling among them, and most of East Sussex beyond, across the TN postcode area. Guessing doesn't help close to a border or somewhere tricky to pin down; ring and check.
A mobile service fits Winchelsea Beach, a coastal village: there's no need to take the car to us, because our engineers drain it there, on a drive, a side street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Winchelsea Beach
There is no honest single quote, since the jobs aren't the same. The price changes 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 turns on where your car is and whether our van can get to it safely, which is simpler on an open driveway than in a tight gap behind The Look Out.
That's why each call from Winchelsea Beach starts with the same three queries, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and if it's run. Given those replies, a range shrinks to one firm figure.
You get that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off, and you pay on the day, by card or over the phone, with nothing upfront. While the van is on the way, dig out your policy: many include misfuelling.
Still beside your car in Winchelsea Beach?
Leaving the vehicle alone is, then, the best thing you can do. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Ring 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it has run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, around Winchelsea Beach or anywhere in East Sussex.