AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Coltishall: What Now?
All of that turns on one detail: whether the engine has been run after the AdBlue was added — far more than anything else. Over in Heggatt Street or here around Coltishall, an unrun motor must stay unrun. Switch nothing on, ring 0333 366 0103, and count on a thorough flush after a drain, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Coltishall. Where your motor has run, stop safely straight away, then turn the car off. The job is bigger, but the first stage is the same.
Match your case to a situation from the ones below, anywhere around Norfolk you happen to be.
At the pump around Coltishall: AdBlue in a diesel
Only now, bottle still in hand, it dawns on you that the cap you opened was the wrong one, right at the petrol pump. It might be the Esso, or the JET, or a different station around Coltishall.
In short: no better place exists to discover it. Only that tank has AdBlue; no component beyond it has drawn any in.
Next: resist the temptation to fire it up only to free up the pump. Ask the staff to help you roll the vehicle into a parking spot, keep the till receipt or the bottle, and call us from the forecourt. Can't move the car by the petrol pump? Explosion-proof kit keeps a live forecourt safe, so it can be drained where it is.
Coltishall, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
For days the dashboard had been nagging you. 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. It happens on drives just off Church Street as regularly as anywhere.
Put simply: if your car has not been driven since, it is almost equal to spotting it at the forecourt. Diesel and AdBlue keep separate: the AdBlue settles to the base of your tank and remains put, however long the night.
Put your keys in the house tonight — otherwise a person might take it off first thing — then call us. Your driveway is where it gets emptied, whether around Coltishall or Horstead. Even at night, the pumps stay quiet enough for a driveway.
On the road around Coltishall with AdBlue in a diesel
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later the engine began to run roughly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. It might have been driving for Norwich, under 10 miles away, or just down High Street.
Put simply: the AdBlue has been pulled into your fuel system. The injection pump and each injector see it as well on a longer trip, once the filter and lines have had it. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so and switch off. On the M11, over 50 miles from Coltishall, that means the next exit, not the services further on. No test restarts: clearing itself is not something AdBlue does. Phone, and say what distance your vehicle was driven.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
You've just had this vehicle for days. Your own vehicle either does without AdBlue or puts it somewhere different, and so nothing warned you the AdBlue cap was right next to the diesel. Across Norfolk, nobody is immune.
The upshot: just as above, divided by if it ran, but with one added stage. The owner often needs to approve the work, under plenty of hire and company agreements.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's quicker settled before we turn up than after. Leave it off as the reply arrives, whether you're waiting outside Hoveton & Wroxham or near Bethesda Gospel Hall.
Unsure about AdBlue in your diesel tank around Coltishall?
Occasionally the fair answer is "I think so". The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia around the filler, and you cannot remember which cap you took off. A rushed top-up by the gates of Coltishall Primary School, or a call to a friend in Belaugh: either fit.
Meaning? Spills outside the filler don't reach the engine at all. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. If there is AdBlue in your tank, starting the car will draw it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Your move: behave as though it got in, and never start the engine. 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.
What each AdBlue drain in Coltishall has in common
Every case gets the same opening to the work. We come to the car, whether it's at a forecourt, a driveway, the car park outside The Red Lion or a side street near Saint John The Baptist, and ask three things: what was put in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run. The price is given on the call, ahead of anyone setting off, and the answers shape the work.
AdBlue forms crystals and is corrosive to certain metals used in fuel systems, and so it does not rinse out on its own; that's why the flush, after this drain, matters much more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Where your motor has not been started, expect roughly half an hour once we arrive, for most jobs.
Last, we fire it up. With fresh diesel in, it runs while our engineers make sure it's running correctly, and then we leave. Our engineers do the entire job where your car is, and lasting damage is very rare if 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 cover misfuelling, so check yours while the van travels.
About Coltishall
Coltishall is a village situated on the River Bure in Norfolk, with a low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level. Coltishall lies approximately 7 miles north of Norwich and 105 miles northeast of London, in a rural area surrounded by nearby villages such as Horstead and Great Hautbois. Coltishall has a mix of old and new properties, but predominantly features detached housing. Coltishall remains a small, quiet community with a population of around 1367 residents.
AdBlue drains around Coltishall, and across Norfolk too
Coltishall is a village, and the same vans that cover it work the places around it too, St James and Great Hautbois among them, across the NR postcode area. A postcode starting NR12 7 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Stopped en route to Colt's Wood, or right in the centre of Coltishall, your car stays put — there's no need to move it at all. The van drains it where it stands. Assuming doesn't help beside Coltishall Village Hall, on a border or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
The one-line version
Engine not started: phone, leaving it switched off. Run by now: pull over, switch down, ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, within Coltishall or anywhere in Norfolk.