AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Cattedown: What Now?
Has your engine run since the AdBlue got in? That one question decides almost everything else from here. Out in Oreston or here around Cattedown, an unrun engine must stay unrun. Normally this means draining and properly flushing it right there in Cattedown — and so keep the key and motor off and phone 0333 366 0103. Already started? Stop once safe, then turn everything off. Stage one stays the same, even though the job is bigger.
Below: the cases our technicians meet, wherever across Devon. Choose yours.
At the pump around Cattedown: AdBlue in a diesel
Only now, nozzle still in your hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, right at the pump. Anywhere around Cattedown, then — the nearest petrol station, Valero, or somewhere else nearby.
Meaning? Spotting it on the forecourt is the best it gets. Still inside that tank, with no fuel drawn onwards: that is where the AdBlue sits.
Next: avoid the urge to start it only to move away from the petrol pump. Get the attendants to lend a hand pushing it to a space, hold on to the bottle, then ring us from there. If it cannot be shifted, it can be drained at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a Cattedown drive?
The warning light had been on for days. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the driveway, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look again at the cap. Houses just off Shapters Way get hit as much as everywhere else.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. Diesel and AdBlue keep apart: the AdBlue settles to the floor of your tank and remains there, however long it waits.
Keep the keys in the house tonight — or someone might drive it off at breakfast — and phone us. Out in Prince Rock or here in Cattedown, the drain happens at your drive. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Cattedown: drove off with AdBlue in a diesel?
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard arrived a short way beyond the top-up. Anywhere along Beech Avenue or else on the road towards Plymouth — under 3 miles away.
Meaning? Your fuel pump has sucked the AdBlue up. Distance decides how deep it gets: filter and pipework first, then the high-pressure pump and every injector. Every restart, like every mile, pushes it deeper.
Next: find a sensible place, stop, then turn the engine off. On the M5, under 50 miles from Cattedown, that means the next junction, not the services further on. Do not restart the car to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Call, saying how far your car went.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
You have had the vehicle barely a week. On your own vehicle, AdBlue is missing or elsewhere. On this one, the cap is right next to your diesel cap — a surprise to you. Anyone, wherever around Devon, could make it.
In short: an extra stage on top of the cases above, and those depend on if it's run. Plenty of hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on your car.
Sorting it before the van turn up is faster, and so ring the hire company or your fleet manager, and then us. Keep the car off as the reply comes, whether you are parked outside Plymouth or near Theatre Royal Production Centre.
Cattedown: unsure whether it was AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Now and then, "I think so" is the most anyone can honestly say. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia round your filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. It might have been on a friend's drive in Mount Batten, or in a rush by Prince Rock Primary School on the school run.
The upshot: your motor isn't hurt by a little AdBlue splashed on the filler. Once it is inside your diesel tank, though, it does. Firing up the vehicle will not tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in your tank it would suck it in.
Take it that it went in, and don't start your key. Call us and explain what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out clean than drain one that has already been run.
What every AdBlue drain around Cattedown has in common
No matter the situation, a single opening applies. Anywhere the car is — The Fareham inn's car park, a street by Vue, a driveway, a forecourt — our van gets there and asks for the liquid, the quantity, plus whether your engine has turned over. Your price is given on the call, before a van leaves, and those answers shape the work.
Then that tank is emptied and your system flushed 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 doesn't rinse out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
Lastly, our technicians start the engine. With fresh diesel in, it runs while we confirm it is running properly, and then we go. When it's noticed quickly, the vehicle very rarely 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. Worth knowing: lots of insurers include misfuelling cover, and so a quick look at your documents as you wait is worthwhile.
About Cattedown, briefly
Cattedown is a coastal suburban area in Devon, situated near the city of Plymouth and overlooking the sea. Cattedown sits at a low elevation of around 12 metres, with its terraced housing stock reflecting its historical development as a residential area. Cattedown is close to nearby places such as Prince Rock, Coxside, and Turnchapel, and is home to a population of approximately 3034 people.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Cattedown included
As a residential suburb, Cattedown has the same vans as the nearby places — Turnchapel, Coxside — all the way through PL postcodes. A postcode starting PL4 0 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Astor Playing Fields or in a car park in the middle of Cattedown, it does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it stands. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to East End Community Centre, near a boundary, or somewhere awkward to explain.
The one-line version
Motor never started: phone, leaving it switched off. Run by now: pull over, power down, phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Cattedown or wherever across Devon.