Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Worth
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, keep your engine off and keep your ignition off. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Not like fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing starts until your engine sucks it round. If the motor has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is normally emptied and thoroughly rinsed where your car stands in Worth. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
Worth, AdBlue in your diesel tank: what to do at once
Do these:
- Pull your keys out, so no one switches the ignition on.
- If you are anywhere near moving traffic, put the hazard lights on.
- Which fluid, and roughly how much volume? Save the bottle or the receipt, and our engineers can see.
- Call us from where you are. A postcode starting RH10 7, or the name of the nearest street, brings our van to you without a search.
Not to do:
- Do not start your motor, even for a moment to move the vehicle.
- Turning your key to ignition by itself sets the pump going on plenty of diesels. Skip it.
- No more fuel added. The AdBlue will not mix, so it's wasted.
- Leave the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short stretch up Saxon Road.
- Beside the road, don't try emptying it yourself.
On a forecourt around Worth, whether it is the Texaco or another one, ask the attendants to help you roll the car clear of the petrol pump. On your own driveway, don't move it at all.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Made for the exhaust, AdBlue has no business in your motor. From a dedicated reservoir it goes straight to the exhaust, treating what your engine emits. Not one side suits the other: urea does not belong in a pump, and a pump can't deal with urea.
Tipped in with the diesel, it keeps apart rather than blending — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup pulls fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a driveway in Pound Hill yesterday evening and not started since is the simple one. Nothing has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once the engine turns, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of the tank.
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 running on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. A car left standing in Worth with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank is not. And there is the water: it offers no lubrication to the components that rely on it the most — the high-pressure pump and each injector.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Fill a diesel with petrol in error at the Tesco, and this problem is diluted fuel. No harm comes as long as it sits unused, mixed into the diesel — only when your engine runs on it.
AdBlue in a diesel is another problem: not thin fuel, but no fuel at all. It cannot just be run through, because it doesn't burn. It does not stay mixed, and so it cannot be thinned. And crystals and corrosion don't wash out with the next tank of fuel. That's why the flush counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, and why starting the motor "to see" costs more here than almost anywhere else, whether the car is in Furnace Green or the middle of Worth.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Never started? Then the AdBlue waits just in your tank, the simplest bit of the whole system to clear, wherever the car has stopped in West Sussex.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank in Worth?
It's not on purpose. Many vehicles have the AdBlue inlet alongside the diesel one, now and then behind a single flap, and muddling them up is simple in poor light. A container picked up when driving home and poured in at home, instead of at the filling station, is the usual story.
The ways it occurs are few and familiar. Rushing, outside Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery, after a warning lamp flashed on during the school run, a parent tops up the car. After work, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Harold Road. Or the vehicle is topped up in the car park outside The Coaching Halt, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
It crops up most in a hire car, a new motor, a company vehicle, or the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuels — the vehicles people use least. Leave it switched off: that is the first response to an identical mistake, wherever in Worth or the remainder of West Sussex you happen to be.
Already started the engine with AdBlue in your diesel tank around Worth?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer inside that tank. Your filter and lines have had it sucked through, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Lumpy running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard warnings or cutting out: each may show up, perhaps midway across Worth or coming back from Burleys Wood. Stop as soon as it is safe, switch off, and don't restart the car to check. Every start pulls more of that through.
On the M23, under a mile from Worth, the next junction is where to leave, and anywhere safe is where to stop — not carrying on.
Hopping across Worth to the car park by St. Nicholas' Church is one matter; heading towards Brighton and Hove, under 25 miles away, is something else, because every mile carries the AdBlue deeper in. So distance counts. Roughly how far had it come? Tell us.
Wherever the vehicle came to a halt is where all of it gets done, even with more to rinse out once the motor has been started. Permanent damage is very uncommon if it's noticed soon.
Worth: how AdBlue is drained from a diesel
The vehicle stays put, whether that is a road near Moat, a driveway, a layby or a filling station around Worth, and the van comes to it. Which fluid went in, about the quantity, plus whether your motor has turned over: our engineers check first, because those decide the work.
Right there, the tank is then drained, and both the contaminated diesel and the urea come out at once. The system is purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol, because what it leaves behind doesn't rinse out on its own. Next, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. Then clean diesel, and then a check of the car. Engine not run? Then expect about half an hour once we are there for most jobs. Our equipment is explosion-proof, so a live forecourt is no issue, and it's hushed enough for a residential street after dark.
Lastly, the fuel system is bled with clean diesel. You set off as soon as our engineers have started the engine, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Worth or in a space by Three Bridges. Before leaving, our technicians make sure it is running properly with clean diesel in. The whole job is done where the car is, so it never has to be taken to a workshop. Afterwards, you are given the paperwork for the insurer: a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer.
About Worth
Worth is a suburban area in West Sussex, situated inland at an elevation of around 102 metres. Worth lies approximately 27 miles south of London and 20 miles north of Brighton and Hove, near neighbouring areas such as Burleys Wood and Crabbet Park. Worth has a population of around 2951 people, predominantly living in detached housing. Worth is also close to other local places like Maidenbower.
AdBlue drains across Worth and West Sussex
Throughout the RH postcode area, the teams answering AdBlue jobs in Worth serve much of West Sussex as well, Burleys Wood, Crabbet Park and Maidenbower included. If you are near a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Anywhere your car sits — a driveway at home, a residential street, a parking area, a forecourt — our engineers drain it there, and there's no need to bring it to us; which suits Worth, a residential suburb, well.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Worth: the cost of fixing it
Each job differs, and so not one fixed price would be honest. What shifts the price is, first of all, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and finally where your car is and whether a technician can reach it safely, which is simpler on an open drive than in a tight gap behind St Edward the Confessor's.
That's why every call from Worth starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what was put in, how much, and whether it's run. Given those replies, a range narrows to one firm figure.
The quote is given during the call, before a van leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or over the phone, and nothing upfront. While our engineer is travelling, dig out your insurance: many include misfuelling.
Next to the vehicle in Worth, right now?
In that case, do nothing — that is the best step available. Keys out; motor and ignition off. Call 0333 366 0103: AdBlue, the amount, and if the engine ran is everything we ask. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest throughout West Sussex, Worth included.