AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Bullenhill: What Now?
One thing counts above all when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is if your engine has been started afterwards. Over in Steeple Ashton or right in Bullenhill, an unstarted engine must remain that way. Phone 0333 366 0103 with your key and engine both off. Across Bullenhill, that is typically emptied and flushed where it stands. Pull over the minute you safely can and switch off, if it has already run. Step one remains unchanged, even though the job is bigger.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever across Wiltshire it happened.
At the petrol pump in Bullenhill: AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you unscrewed was the wrong one — and you just notice it while you're standing at the petrol pump, bottle or nozzle in hand. Be it BP, Tesco or somewhere else around Bullenhill, the case is identical.
What it means: this is the ideal spot to find out. The AdBlue is in your tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
Next: resist the temptation to start it only to free up the petrol pump. Get the attendants to lend a hand rolling it to a space, save the receipt, then phone us right there. Our equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a live forecourt, and so a vehicle that cannot be pushed away is drained where it is at the petrol pump.
Bullenhill, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. Bought a container, poured it in outside the house, recycled the empty — and only then looked at the cap again, after the fact. It happens on driveways just off Common Hill as regularly as anywhere.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. On the bottom of your tank is where AdBlue waits, because it will not blend with diesel — and a night passing changes nothing of the difference.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so nobody moves the vehicle in the morning. Then ring. Your driveway is where it gets emptied, whether around Bullenhill or Ashton Common. Night-time empties beside a house are no problem: the pumps are quiet.
On the road in Bullenhill with AdBlue in a diesel
A short way beyond topping up, your motor began misbehaving: roughness, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash. Maybe it was on Newleaze, possibly on the way out towards Bath, under 15 miles away.
What it means: your fuel system has pulled the AdBlue in. The injection pump and each injector see it too on a bigger run, once your filter and pipework have it. Every restart, like every mile, carries it on.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so and switch off. On the M4, under 15 miles from Bullenhill, that means the next exit, not the services further on. It won't have cleared, and so there is no point starting it again to check. Call, saying what distance the car went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You have had the vehicle hardly a week. On your own car, AdBlue is absent or elsewhere. On this one, the cap is just next to your diesel cap — news to you. It can happen to anyone, anywhere around Wiltshire.
In short: one extra step on top of the situations above, which depend on whether it has run. The owner often needs to approve any work, under plenty of hire and company agreements.
Next: phone the hire company or the fleet manager first, then us — sorting it before our arrival is faster. Stuck near Steeple Ashton Methodist Church or at Trowbridge till someone replies, your car remains turned off throughout.
Bullenhill: unsure whether it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
"I think so" is sometimes as honest as it gets. Which cap came off, you cannot say; meanwhile the bottle feels less than expected, and ammonia lingers by the filler. It might have been on a friend's driveway in East Town, or in a rush outside Castle Mead School on the school run.
The upshot: the motor isn't hurt by some AdBlue spilled on the outside. Once it is inside your diesel tank, though, that changes. If there is AdBlue in the tank, turning on your car will draw it in, and it would not tell you which either.
Assume it got in, and never turn the key. Ring us and describe what you saw; we would rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
What each AdBlue drain around Bullenhill has in common
Whichever situation you are in, the job starts the same way. Three things are asked once our engineers arrive — on a filling station, a driveway, a road by St Mary the Virgin or the car park outside The Longs Arms: the fluid, the amount, and whether the motor has been started. Those replies settle the work, and you get our price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned or changed, and your car is then checked. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
Lastly, we start the car. With new diesel in, it runs while our technicians check it is running properly, and then we go. Our technicians do the whole job where your car is, and long-term damage is very uncommon when it has been caught early. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Bullenhill, for a moment
Bullenhill is a locality in Wiltshire, situated inland at an elevation of 84 metres, approximately 88 miles west of London. Bullenhill lies near the city of Bath, about 10 miles away, and is close to other nearby places such as Ashton Common and Bleet. Bullenhill has a population of around 619 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
Bullenhill and Wiltshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over BA postcodes, the teams covering Bullenhill — a small village — work surrounding places as well, Bleet and Cold Harbour included. The whereabouts comes clearest from a postcode that starts BA14 6.
Central Bullenhill or a layby near Stourton Plantation: either way it is, your car never needs to move an inch for us. Where it sits, that's where it is drained. Assuming doesn't help near Steeple Ashton Village Hall, on a county line or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
The one-line version
Engine not started: phone, and leave it switched off. Started by now? Stop, turn off, ring. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder whichever it is, across Bullenhill and Wiltshire, on 0333 366 0103.