AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Brunton, and What to Do Next
Everything hinges on one fact: whether the motor has started since the AdBlue went in — more than anything else. Not started yet? Then keep the car like that, whether your vehicle is — Brunton or Collingbourne Ducis. Leave your engine and your ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103; it is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Brunton. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. It is a larger job, yet step one doesn't change.
Wherever around Wiltshire it happened, one of the cases below matches yours.
Brunton forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
You are at the petrol pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. Perhaps you're at the Esso, perhaps at the Murco, maybe somewhere else around Brunton.
What it means: this is the ideal place to find out. Still in your tank, with no fuel drawn onwards: that's where the AdBlue sits.
What to do: do not get back in and start it to clear the pump. Ask the attendants to help you push the car into a parking spot, keep the till receipt or the bottle, and phone us from the forecourt. If it can't be shifted, it can be emptied at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a working forecourt.
AdBlue in the diesel tank on a Brunton drive?
On the dash, a reminder had been lit all week. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the drive, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look again at the cap. Houses just off Brunton Lane get hit as often as everywhere else.
In short: if your vehicle hasn't moved since, it's nearly as good as spotting it at the forecourt. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of your tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
Keep your keys indoors overnight — or a person might take it off first thing — and call us. Aughton or Brunton: wherever your drive sits, that's where it is drained. Even at night, our pumps stay quiet enough for a driveway.
Brunton: set off with AdBlue in a diesel?
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later your motor began to run unevenly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Ham Close, say, or the route to Salisbury — a trip of under 25 miles.
What it means: the fuel system has pulled the AdBlue in. The injection pump and each injector get it too on a longer trip, after the filter and pipework have it. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Do this: pull up somewhere safe, then turn the motor off. Exit at the first junction — not the services beyond — if you're on the M4, under 15 miles from Brunton. Don't restart the car to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Call, saying what distance your vehicle went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
It's a car you have had for a week. On your own vehicle, AdBlue is missing or elsewhere. On this one, its cap is just next to the diesel inlet — news to you. It can happen to anyone, anywhere in Wiltshire.
In short: an extra stage on top of the cases above, and those depend on whether it's run. Many hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on the vehicle.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's quicker settled before our technicians arrive than after. Keep the car off while the answer arrives, whether you are parked at Bedwyn or near St Mary.
Unsure about AdBlue in the diesel tank in Brunton?
Now and then, "I think so" is the most anyone can honestly say. Too light, that bottle; a trace of ammonia near your filler; a hazy recollection of the cap. Look familiar? A rushed top-up by the gates of Collingbourne Church of England Primary School, or a visit to a friend in Cadley: both fits.
Meaning? Drips around the inlet don't touch the engine at all. If it's inside your diesel tank, though, it does. You can't tell which by turning the key, and doing so would draw in any AdBlue that is in the tank.
Take it that it was put in, and don't turn the engine. Tell us what you saw on the phone. A clean tank checked counts as a happier outcome than a run one emptied.
The common ground in each Brunton AdBlue drain
The job begins identically, whichever the case. Anywhere the vehicle stands — The Barleycorn's car park, a street by Collingbourne Ducis Village Hall, a drive, a forecourt — the van gets there and we ask about the fluid, the quantity, plus if the engine has been run. Over the phone, before anything else, you hear the quote, and those answers decide the work too.
Then the tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
Lastly, our technicians start it. Our check that it runs correctly on clean diesel comes before we head off. When it is spotted soon, the car very seldom has permanent damage, and the entire job happens where it is. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth knowing: many insurers offer misfuelling cover, so a check of your policy as you wait is worthwhile.
About Brunton and where it is
Brunton is a small village in Wiltshire, situated on the riverside in the South West of England. Brunton has a population of around 515 people and is characterized by its predominantly detached housing. Brunton sits at an elevation of 153 metres, near the villages of Aughton, Collingbourne Kingston, and Sunton. Brunton is located approximately 17.6 miles from the city of Salisbury and 67 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Brunton and across Wiltshire
Brunton is a village, and the same vans that cover it work the towns around it too, Collingbourne Kingston and Sunton among them, across the SN postcode area. A postcode starting SN8 3 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Whether the car is on a lay-by on the way to Cowdown Plantation or in a car park in the middle of Brunton, it does not need to move. Our van drains it in place. If you're somewhere hard to describe, close to St Andrew's or close to a boundary, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The one-line version
Still unrun? Keep the car that way then phone. Whichever case applies, Petrol in Diesel handles from there on 0333 366 0103, across Wiltshire and within Brunton — once you pull over, switch off and ring, if it's run.