What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Brushes
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: if the engine has run since it was put in. If it hasn't, keep it that way, whether your car is around Brushes itself or out in Copley. Leave the engine and the ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103; it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Brushes. Where your engine has been run, stop safely straight away, then turn it off. It is a bigger job, though stage one doesn't change.
Anywhere across Greater Manchester it happened, one of the cases below matches yours.
At the pump around Brushes: AdBlue in a diesel
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. Possibly you are at the Texaco, possibly at the Tesco, perhaps somewhere else around Brushes.
In short: there is no better place exists to discover it. No pump has drawn it in, so the AdBlue sits only inside that tank.
Next: avoid the temptation to fire it up only to move away from the pump. Ask the staff to help you push your car into a parking bay, keep the till receipt or the bottle, then call us from the forecourt. The equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a live forecourt, and so a car that cannot be pushed clear gets drained where it is at the pump.
Brushes, at home: AdBlue in the diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. Only at the recycling bin, the empty container in hand, did you glance back at the cap you'd used on the drive. Driveways close to Elms Road get it as much as anywhere.
In short: if the vehicle has not been driven since, it is almost as good as spotting it at the forecourt. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of that tank and waits there. Overnight doesn't change that.
Your move: keys in the house, and so nobody drives your vehicle anywhere first thing. Then, phone. Our engineers drain the car on your drive, whether that's around Brushes or out in Spindle Point. Night-time empties outside a house are fine: the pumps are low-noise.
Set off with AdBlue in a diesel in Brushes?
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later the motor began to run roughly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Brushes Road, say, or the route to Manchester — a trip of under 10 miles.
Put simply: the AdBlue has been sucked through the system. Past the fuel filter, through the lines, and — the further the mileage — deeper into the injection pump and each injector. It goes further with every mile covered and each restart.
Your move: stop anywhere sensible, then switch your engine off. On the M67, under 3 miles from Brushes, that means the next exit, not the services further on. Don't restart the car to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Ring us and say how far you travelled.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
It is a vehicle you have had for a week. Unknown to you, the AdBlue and diesel fillers sit next to each other here — not like your own vehicle, which has no AdBlue or stores it elsewhere. Any driver, anywhere across Greater Manchester, might make it.
Put simply: one extra step on top of the situations above, and those turn on if it has run. Work on your vehicle frequently requires the owner's approval under hire or fleet agreements.
What to do: ring the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's quicker settled before our technicians get there than after. If you're stranded in the car park outside Stalybridge, or by Copley Leisure Centre, while you wait for an answer, leave the car off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Not sure, around Brushes
Truthfully, the best answer might be that you think so. What cap was taken off, you cannot recall; meanwhile the bottle feels lighter than it ought to, and a whiff of ammonia lingers by your filler. A hurried top-up by the gates of Wild Bank Primary School, or a call to a friend in Sun Green: either fits.
What it means: a little spilled around your filler does no harm to the motor. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. Any AdBlue in the tank will be sucked in by starting the car, and the start would not settle which it is in any case.
Next: act as though it got in, then leave your motor off. Ring and give what you saw: we'd sooner confirm a clean tank than empty one after the engine has run.
What each AdBlue drain around Brushes has in common
Whichever situation you are in, this job starts the same way. Our technicians come to your car, whether it's on a forecourt, a drive, the car park outside The Reindeer Inn or a side street close to Saint Paul's Parish Church, and ask three things: what got in, about how much, and if your motor has been run. Over the phone, ahead of dispatch, you are told our quote, and those answers decide the work too.
Then the tank is cleared and your system cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't rinse out on its own. Then comes the filter — flushed, or swapped where necessary — followed by clean diesel, and a test of the vehicle. Not started? Then about half an hour on site is most jobs.
The final step is starting it. With fresh diesel in, it runs while our technicians check it's running properly, and then we leave. The whole job is done where your car is, and if it's caught soon, permanent damage is very uncommon. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies cover misfuelling, and so check yours as we head over.
About Brushes
Brushes is a suburban area situated on the outskirts of Manchester, near the lakeside and surrounded by nearby places such as Spindle Point and Millbrook. Brushes has a population of around 5080 people and is characterised by its predominant semi-detached housing. Brushes sits at an elevation of 169 metres, approximately 8.7 miles from Manchester and 158.6 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Brushes included
Being a residential suburb, Brushes shares its vans with the surrounding places — Far Souracre, Millbrook — all the way through SK postcodes. The whereabouts comes clearest from a postcode that starts SK15 3.
Centre of Brushes or a lay-by towards Stalybridge Country Park: either way it sits, the car never needs to shift at all for this drain. Our technicians drain the vehicle where it stands. If you're somewhere hard to describe, near Stayley Cricket Club or close to a boundary, ring and ask instead of assuming.
In one line: your scenario
Not run yet: keep it off and ring. Started already? Pull over, turn off, phone. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder whichever case, across Brushes and Greater Manchester, on 0333 366 0103.