Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Woolston
Engine off, ignition off: that's how you begin if AdBlue has got into the diesel tank. Urea mixed in water is what AdBlue is. As it is water-based, it won't burn and won't blend with diesel; trouble only starts once your pump starts pulling it. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Woolston, is normally what AdBlue in a diesel tank takes — if it's caught before your engine has run. Before you do anything else, call 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Woolston: the first few minutes
Things to do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Near moving traffic? Then put the hazards on.
- Which fluid, and about how much amount? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and we can know.
- Give us a postcode starting SO19 7, or whatever street lies closest, and our van finds you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Don't:
- Shifting your vehicle just a few yards is no reason to start the motor.
- Plenty of diesels run their pump the moment the ignition comes on, and so leave it off.
- Adding more diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Never drive it anywhere, not even a short way up Oakbank Road.
- Don't try to drain it yourself at the kerbside.
Get the attendants to help you roll the car away from the pumps if you are on a forecourt around Woolston, whether it's the BP or elsewhere. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
The motor is not what AdBlue is made for; your exhaust is. From a separate tank it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what the engine lets out. No part in a fuel pump is designed for this liquid — and no part of that was meant to travel through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake takes fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that's just where AdBlue settles: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. The first thing the system pulls through, once it runs, is the AdBlue. So a vehicle that had AdBlue poured in on a drive in Chapel last night, and hasn't been started since, is still the straightforward case: the AdBlue is lying at the bottom of the tank, and nothing has sucked it in.
Once it is drawn in, the damage comes in two forms. 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 stays there. A car left sitting around Woolston with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and every injector depend on diesel running past them, so the water part harms them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's commonly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake at the Esso, and the issue is diluted fuel. Mixed into your diesel and left unused, it is harmless at that stage; running your engine does the damage.
With AdBlue in a diesel, the fluid itself is plainly the wrong one. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. Crystals and corrosion stay through the next fill, and AdBlue separates again out of your diesel, so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush counts more, and trying your engine "to see" does more harm with AdBlue than almost any other slip — in Ocean Village or the heart of Woolston alike.
As with petrol, there's good news. Not started? Then the AdBlue sits just in that tank, the simplest section of the whole system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest in Hampshire.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Woolston: how it ends up there
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on many motors waits right next to your diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. It mostly occurs at home, from a container grabbed en route home, not at the filling station.
Mostly, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. Rushing, outside St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent refills the vehicle. In the evening, a bottle goes in on a driveway near Itchen Bridge. Or the car is topped up in the car park outside Olaf's Tun, in poor light, by someone who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a rental, a new vehicle, a fleet vehicle, or the spare motor in a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use the least. Wherever you're around Woolston or the remainder of Hampshire, it is the same slip and the same first answer: leave the car off.
Started your engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Woolston?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in that tank. It has been sucked through the filter and the lines, and if the motor ran for any time, it has got to the high-pressure pump and the injectors.
Expect lumpy running, exhaust smoke, falling power, warnings on your dash, or a cut-out — returning from Woolston Millenium Garden, perhaps, or midway across Woolston. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart it to check. Each start pulls more of it through.
On the M27, under 3 miles from Woolston, the next junction is where to leave, and somewhere safe is where to stop — not driving on.
Each mile carries the AdBlue deeper into the system. That is why a hop across Woolston to park near Spitfire and a drive of under 3 miles towards Southampton are such different jobs. Approximately how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever your car came to a stop is where all of it gets done, even with more to flush after your engine has been run. If it's noticed early, long-term damage is very rare.
Draining AdBlue in a diesel in Woolston: what it takes
Wherever it has come to rest around Woolston — a filling station, a lay-by, a driveway, a street by St Patrick's Church — our van comes to your car. Three replies shape the work, and so first our technicians ask which fluid got in, about the amount, plus if your motor has turned over.
The contaminated diesel and the urea leave together after that tank is emptied, right there. A careful flush matters far more with AdBlue than after petrol, since what remains will not clear away by itself. After that, the filter: cleaned, or replaced when it has to be. After that fresh diesel, then a check of your car. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we arrive. Low-noise enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a working forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
The final step is to prime the fuel system on fresh diesel. Whether it's a parking bay by the nearest station or a driveway around Woolston, that is where we fire it up and you drive off. It's checked on clean diesel to make sure it runs smoothly before we head off. No garage is needed at any stage, with the whole job done then and there. Afterwards, there is paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Woolston, briefly
Woolston is a coastal suburban area in Hampshire, situated near the city of Southampton and overlooking the waters of Southampton Water. Woolston sits at a low elevation of around 13 metres, with its predominant housing stock consisting of flats. Woolston is close to nearby places such as Itchen, Crosshouse, and Peartree Green, and is home to a population of approximately 8520 residents.
AdBlue drains across Hampshire, Woolston included
AdBlue jobs in Woolston are passed to teams that cover the places near it — Itchen, Crosshouse as well as Peartree Green — and most of Hampshire further out, across SO postcodes. Near a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
Woolston is a residential suburb, and an on-site drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, we drain it where it sits, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
Woolston: what AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to fix
Since the callouts vary, a single price would not be honest. Whether the motor has been running, and for how long, comes first in what shifts the price. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the car, because an open drive is easier for our van to reach safely than a tight spot behind Woolston Masonic Hall.
For that reason, every call from Woolston begins by asking the identical trio — which fluid went in, how much, if it ran — before a quote. Once those are answered, a range becomes a single fixed number.
You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out, and you pay on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover is part of many insurance policies, so it is worth looking at yours before the van gets there.
In Woolston and still alongside the vehicle?
Then, do nothing — that's the most helpful move there is. Engine off, keys out, ignition off. Say it's AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and whether the engine ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, across Woolston or wherever in Hampshire.