What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Cotton
One fact counts above all when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and that is if the engine has run afterwards. Wherever the car is — Wyverstone Green, Cotton — don't start an engine that hasn't run yet. Leave your engine and your ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103; it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Cotton. Already started? Stop once safe, then switch it off. A bigger job, yes, but the same opening move.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever around Suffolk it happened.
On a Cotton forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you unscrewed was the wrong one — and you just spot it while you are stood at the pump, bottle or the nozzle in your hand. It might be the Lamberts Service Station, or perhaps the BP, or another forecourt around Cotton.
What it means: this is the ideal spot to find out. The AdBlue is inside that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
Next: resist the temptation to fire it up just to free up the pump. Three jobs: a push into a bay with the attendants assisting, the bottle kept, and a call to us from the forecourt. Draining it right at the petrol pump is fine when it cannot be moved, since the equipment is explosion-proof.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a Cotton drive?
The warning light had been on for days. Only by the recycling, the empty bottle in hand, did you glance back at the cap you'd opened at the drive. Drives near Station Road see it as much as any other street.
In short: if the car hasn't been driven since, it's nearly as good as finding out at the pump. Being reluctant to mix, AdBlue drops to the base in your tank and stays. One night parked alters none of that.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so nobody moves the vehicle in the morning. Then call. Fords Green or Cotton: whichever your drive is, that's where it is drained. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Cotton: drove off with AdBlue in a diesel?
Rough running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard started a short way beyond the top-up. Blacksmith Road, perhaps, or the way to Colchester — a trip of under 50 miles.
What it means: your fuel system has drawn the AdBlue in. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — the further the mileage — on into the high-pressure pump and each injector. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Stop safely — that is the first step — then turn everything off. Leave at the first junction — not the services beyond — if you're on the M11, under 50 miles from Cotton. Restarting it to check achieves nothing — AdBlue never clears on its own. Tell us hear the distance driven when you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
A week ago, it was unknown to you. On your own car, AdBlue is missing or somewhere else. On this one, its inlet is just next to the diesel cap — news to you. Anyone, wherever in Suffolk, could do it.
The upshot: exactly as above, split by if it ran, but with an added stage. The owner frequently has to sign off the work, under plenty of hire and fleet contracts.
Settling it before we turn up is quicker, so phone the hire company or your fleet manager, then us. Stranded near Cotton Mechanical Music Museum & Bygones or outside Elmswell till someone replies, the vehicle remains switched off throughout.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, in Cotton
Sometimes the fair answer is "I think so". What cap came off, you cannot recall; but the bottle weighs less than it ought to, and a whiff of ammonia lingers by the filler. Perhaps it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Bacton Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Finningham.
Put simply: spillage near the filler leaves the motor no harm. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. Any AdBlue in your tank will be pulled in by firing up the car, and the start would not settle which it is in any case.
Next: assume it got in, then leave the engine off. Checking a tank that proves clean is better than emptying one once it's been run — so ring and describe to us what you noticed.
The common ground in each Cotton AdBlue drain
No matter the situation, a single opening applies. Wherever your car stands — Trowell and Hammer's car park, a road by Cotton Methodist Church, a driveway, a filling station — our van gets there and asks for the fluid, the quantity, plus if your engine has turned over. On the phone, before anything else, you are told our price, and those answers shape the work too.
A thorough flush follows the drain. With petrol it's standard; with AdBlue it is crucial, because crystals form and certain metals corrode, and neither washes away unaided. Clean diesel is put in once your filter is flushed or replaced, and your car is finally tested. The majority of unstarted vehicles are a half-hour visit from the moment our technicians arrive.
We fire it up at the end. Before our technicians head off, it's tested to confirm it runs correctly on fresh diesel. If it's caught quickly, the car very seldom has lasting damage, and the entire job takes place where it is. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, no money in advance. Dig out your insurance before we're en route: cover for misfuelling is built into plenty of policies.
About Cotton
Cotton is a small village in Suffolk, situated inland at an elevation of 62 metres, with a mix of detached homes and rural landscapes. Cotton lies near the villages of Fords Green and Bacton, and is approximately 26 miles from Colchester. Cotton has a population of around 518 residents, living in a predominantly detached housing setting. Cotton is also about 72 miles from London, making it a rural retreat from the city.
AdBlue drains around Cotton, and across Suffolk too
Dandy Corner and Bacton have the identical teams as Cotton, a rural village, along with further places throughout IP postcodes. Giving us a IP14 4 postcode finds you fastest of all.
Centre of Cotton or a layby towards Low Meadow Plantation: wherever it sits, your vehicle never needs to shift an inch for this drain. Where it sits, that is where it gets emptied. Guessing doesn't help beside Cotton Village Sign, on a border or anywhere hard to describe; ring and ask.
Your situation, summed up
Unstarted? Keep the car off and ring. Whatever line applies, Petrol in Diesel handles from there on 0333 366 0103, throughout Suffolk and in Cotton — after you pull over, turn off and phone, if it has run.