AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Coopersale: What Now?
Has your engine turned over since the AdBlue got in? This one question decides almost everything else from here. Over in Fiddlers Hamlet or right in Coopersale, an unstarted engine must stay unrun. Keep nothing on, call 0333 366 0103, and count on a thorough flush plus a drain, carried out just where the car sits around Coopersale. Where your engine has been run, stop safely first, then switch the car off. A larger job, yes, but the identical opening move.
Wherever around Essex it took place, one of the cases below fits yours.
At the petrol pump around Coopersale: AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you opened was the wrong one — and you just notice it as you are standing at the pump, bottle or nozzle in your hand. Anywhere around Coopersale, then — Shell, Harvest Energy, or anywhere else nearby.
In short: no better spot to be to spot it. The AdBlue is in that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has drawn it in.
Next: avoid the urge to fire it up only to move away from the pump. Three things: a shove into a bay with the attendants helping, the bottle saved, and a call to us from where you stand. Stuck by the pump? Explosion-proof equipment keeps a live forecourt sensible, so we can drain the vehicle where it is.
AdBlue in the diesel tank at home around Coopersale
For days the dashboard had been nagging you. A bottle bought at the garage, tipped in at the drive — and it was only at the bin that the cap got your eye. Homes just off Brickfield Road are hit as much as everywhere else.
In short: if the vehicle hasn't moved since, it's nearly equal to finding out at the pump. Diesel and AdBlue keep apart: the AdBlue drops to the floor of that tank and stays there, however long the night.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so nobody moves the car in the morning. Then call. Our technicians drain the car on your drive, whether that is around Coopersale or out in Coopersale Common. Night-time empties outside a house are no problem: the pumps are quiet.
On the road around Coopersale with AdBlue in a diesel
Topped up, pulled away, and before long your engine was running unevenly, smoking, down on power, or lighting up the dash. Maybe it was on Oak Glade, possibly on the way out towards Chelmsford, under 15 miles away.
Meaning? Your pump has taken the AdBlue in. The high-pressure pump and every injector see it too on a longer trip, once the fuel filter and lines have it. More driving, more restarts: deeper it goes.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so then switch off. On the M11, under a mile from Coopersale, that means the next junction, not the services further on. Don't restart the car to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Phone, saying how far your car was driven.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
It's a vehicle you have had for a week. The AdBlue filler sits right beside the diesel filler, which you didn't know, because your own motor either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Wherever you happen to be around Essex, any motorist can be caught.
The point: exactly as above, divided by if it ran, but with an added step. Many rental and company contracts require the owner's sign-off for work.
Settling it before we turn up is faster, so phone the hire company or your fleet manager, and then us. Hanging on for an answer in the car park outside Harlow Town, or near Coopersale Village Hall? Leave the car off throughout.
Coopersale: unsure whether it was AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Honestly, the only answer may be that you think so. Lighter, the bottle; a hint of ammonia round the filler; a hazy memory of which cap. Sound familiar? The gates of Coopersale and Theydon Garnon Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School in a hurry, perhaps, or a friend's drive over in Epping.
Put simply: spillage round the filler leaves the motor unharmed. Inside your diesel tank, by contrast, AdBlue harms it. Firing up the vehicle cannot tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in that tank it would draw it in.
Next: act as though it got in, and keep the motor off. Ring and give the details: we'd rather find a clean tank than drain one once the engine has been run.
Coopersale: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Each case gets the same start to the work. Our engineers come to the vehicle, whether it's on a forecourt, a drive, the car park outside The Garnon Bushes or a side street near Saint Alban the Martyr, Coopersale, and ask three things: what got in, about how much, and whether the engine has been run. Your price is given on the call, ahead of anyone setting off, and the replies set the work.
A thorough flush follows this drain. With petrol it is standard; with AdBlue it's essential, since crystals form and some metals corrode, and none of it washes away unaided. Then is the filter — flushed, or replaced when necessary — followed by fresh diesel, and a test of your vehicle. Not started? In that case about half an hour once we are there covers most jobs.
We fire it up last. We check it runs correctly on clean diesel before we go. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, and if it is noticed quickly, long-term damage is very rare. Nothing is paid upfront, payment is made on the day, and you receive what the insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies cover misfuelling, so look at yours while the van travels.
About Coopersale and where it is
Coopersale is a small village in Essex, situated approximately 17.6 miles northeast of London and 14.7 miles northwest of Chelmsford. Coopersale sits in a rural area at an elevation of around 110 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Coopersale Common and Gernon Bushes. Coopersale has a population of around 1067 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Coopersale is also close to Coopersale Street, a nearby hamlet.
Coopersale and Essex: AdBlue drains across the area
As a rural village, Coopersale shares its vans with the surrounding places — Coopersale Street, Gernon Bushes — all the way through CM postcodes. A postcode starting CM16 7 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Parked en route to The Lower Forest, or right in the centre of Coopersale, your car remains put — there's no need to move it anywhere. Draining happens right there. Ring and ask rather than guess if you're by Pavilion, on a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Your scenario, in one line
Still unrun? Leave the car that way and phone. Run by now? Pull over, switch off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whatever it is, in Coopersale and Essex, on 0333 366 0103.