AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Chitts Hills: What Now?
Has the engine turned over since the AdBlue went in? That one question settles nearly everything else from here. Anywhere your vehicle is — Lexden, Chitts Hills — don't start a motor that hasn't run yet. Call 0333 366 0103 with your key and engine still off. In Chitts Hills, that is generally emptied and flushed on the spot. Already run? Pull over once you safely can, then turn everything off. A bigger job, yes, but the same first step.
Match your case to one of the ones below, anywhere around Essex you happen to be.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Chitts Hills forecourt
Only now, bottle still in your hand, it dawns on you that the cap you took off was the wrong one, right at the pump. Anywhere in Chitts Hills, then — Esso, Sainsbury's, or anywhere else close by.
The point: of every spot to find out, this is the best. Still inside your tank, with no fuel pulled onwards: that's where the AdBlue sits.
Next: resist the temptation to start it just to move away from the petrol pump. Get the staff to help rolling it into a space, save the bottle, then ring us from there. If it can't be moved, it can be drained at the petrol pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a working forecourt.
AdBlue in the diesel tank at home in Chitts Hills
The warning light had been on for days. Only at the recycling bin, the empty bottle in your hand, did you look back at the cap you'd opened at the driveway. Driveways close to Porter Drive see it as much as anywhere.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. As it is reluctant to blend, AdBlue settles low in that tank and stays. One night standing changes nothing.
Keep your keys in the house overnight — otherwise someone might drive it off at breakfast — then call us. Our technicians drain the car on your drive, whether that is around Chitts Hills or out in Beacon End. Night-time drains outside a house are fine: the pumps are quiet.
Set off with AdBlue in a diesel around Chitts Hills?
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later the motor began to run unevenly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Maybe driving for Colchester, under 3 miles away, or just down Swallowtail Grove.
What it means: the fuel system has pulled the AdBlue in. The high-pressure pump and each injector see it as well on a longer run, after the fuel filter and pipework have it. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
What to do: pull over where it is safe to do so and switch off. Chitts Hills lies under 50 miles from the M11; there, pull off at the next junction instead of pressing on for the services. No trial starts: clearing itself is not something AdBlue does. About how far did it go? Tell us as you phone.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company motors
It is a car you have had for a week. Unbeknown to you, the two inlets are next to each other here — unlike your own vehicle, which has none or stores it elsewhere. Anywhere you are in Essex, any driver could slip up.
In short: an extra step on top of the cases above, and those depend on whether it's run. The owner often needs to sign off any work, under plenty of hire and fleet contracts.
Next: phone the hire company or the fleet manager first, and then us — settling it before we arrive is quicker. Waiting for an answer at the car park outside Colchester, or beside Stanway Evangelical Church? Keep the car off meanwhile.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, in Chitts Hills
"I think so" is sometimes the most honest answer there is. Which cap came off, you can't recall; but the bottle weighs lighter than expected, and ammonia lingers by the filler. A hurried top-up by the gates of Stanway Primary School, or a call to a friend in Seven Star Green: either fits.
Put simply: spillage near the filler leaves the engine no harm. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. Any AdBlue in that tank would be drawn in by turning on the car, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
What to do: treat it as if it went in. Do not crank it. Ring us and describe what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
Chitts Hills: what every AdBlue drain has in common
Whichever situation you are in, this job starts the same way. Wherever your car stands — The Live and Let Live's car park, a road by Stanway Library, a driveway, a filling station — our van arrives and asks for the liquid, the amount, and whether the motor has been run. Answers set the work; the quote follows by phone while nobody has left yet.
AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some metals in fuel systems, and so it won't rinse out on its own; that's why the flush, after this drain, counts far more with AdBlue than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in once the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced, and your car is then tested. Not started? Then roughly half an hour on site is most jobs.
Starting the engine comes at the end. With clean diesel in, it runs while our engineers make sure it's running smoothly, and then we head off. Our engineers do the whole job where the car is, and long-term damage is very rare if it has been spotted quickly. Nothing is taken upfront, settlement is made on the day, and you receive what your insurer wants: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. It is worth remembering: lots of insurers offer misfuelling cover, and so a quick look at your documents while you wait is worthwhile.
About Chitts Hills itself
Chitts Hills is a locality situated inland in Essex, approximately 2.6 miles from Colchester and 49.3 miles from London. Chitts Hills has a relatively low elevation of 42 metres and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Chitts Hills is surrounded by nearby places such as Beacon End, Stanway, and Eight Ash Green, and has a population of around 1397 residents.
Chitts Hills and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
Over CO postcodes, the vans covering Chitts Hills — a neighbourhood — reach surrounding places too, Stanway and Eight Ash Green among them. The location comes quickest from a postcode beginning CO3 0.
No towing is needed, whether stopped centrally in Chitts Hills or in a lay-by heading to Lexden Gathering Grounds, so leave it put. Where it stands, that's where it gets cleared. Tricky to pin down? Close to Tollgate Hall or a county line? Asking is better than guessing, so phone.
In one line: your situation
Engine not started: ring, leaving it switched off. Run already: pull over, switch down, phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, within Chitts Hills or anywhere in Essex.