Fordhouses: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
All of it hinges on a single fact: whether your motor has been run after the AdBlue was added — more than anything else. If it has not, keep it that way, whether the car is in Fordhouses itself or out in Oxley. Call 0333 366 0103 with your key and motor both off. Across Fordhouses, such a case is typically drained and cleaned where it stands. Stop the moment it is safe and switch off, if it has been run. It is a larger job, though step one doesn't change.
Further down: the situations we see, anywhere across West Midlands. Pick yours.
At the pump around Fordhouses: AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you unscrewed was the wrong one — and you only spot it while you are stood at the pump, bottle or the nozzle in your hand. Possibly you're at the BP, possibly at the Esso, perhaps somewhere else in Fordhouses.
The point: of every spot to find out, the forecourt is the best. Only that tank holds AdBlue; not one part past it has drawn it in.
What to do: don't get back in and start the car to clear the pump. Get the attendants to help rolling it into a space, hold on to the receipt, then ring us right 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 your diesel tank at home in Fordhouses
For days the dash had been warning you. A bottle from the garage, tipped in on the driveway — and it was only at the recycling that the cap caught your eye. Houses just off Wobaston Road get caught out as often as anywhere else.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. Diesel and AdBlue stay apart: the AdBlue drops to the base of your tank and remains there, no matter how long it waits.
Keep your keys indoors overnight — or a person might drive it off first thing — then phone us. Our technicians drain the car on your drive, whether that is around Fordhouses or out in Bushbury. Even at night, the pumps stay quiet enough for a residential street.
Set off with AdBlue in a diesel in Fordhouses?
Rough running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard started a short way after the fill. Perhaps it was on Winchester Road, possibly on the way out towards Wolverhampton, under 3 miles away.
What it means: your fuel system has pulled the AdBlue in. It has been through the fuel filter and your lines and, the further you went, into your high-pressure pump and the injectors. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Stop somewhere safe — that's the first job — then switch it off. Service stations further on can wait: on the M54, under a mile out of Fordhouses, use the first junction. Don't restart it to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Tell us hear the distance driven as you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company vehicles
A week ago, the car was unknown to you. On your own car, AdBlue is missing or somewhere else. On this one, the cap is just next to the diesel inlet — news to you. Anywhere you happen to be across West Midlands, every driver could be caught.
What it means: the same as the situations above, depending on whether it has run, with one more step. Work on the vehicle often requires the owner's go-ahead under hire or company agreements.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is quicker settled before we turn up than after. If you're stranded in the car park outside Bilbrook, or by St Anthony of Padua, while you wait for an answer, leave the car off.
Fordhouses: unsure whether it was AdBlue in your diesel tank?
At times the honest answer is "I think so". Which cap came off, you cannot recall; meanwhile the bottle weighs less than expected, and ammonia hangs by the filler. A hurried top-up by the gates of St Anthony's Catholic Primary Academy, or a visit to a friend in Elston Hall: either fit.
The point: your engine is not hurt by a little AdBlue splashed around the outside. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. You can't tell which by turning the key, and doing so would draw in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Your move: act as though it did, and don't start your motor. Phone and give what you saw: we would sooner confirm a tank free of AdBlue than empty one after your motor has been run.
Every AdBlue drain around Fordhouses shares these steps
Whichever scenario you are in, this job starts the same way. Forecourt, driveway, The Moreton Arms's car park or a street by Fordhouses Baptist Church — the van reaches your car, and three questions come next: which fluid, what quantity, and if it ran. Those answers settle the work, and you get the quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly, which counts 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. Last come the filter, cleaned or replaced if necessary; fresh diesel; and a test of your vehicle. Where your motor has not been started, allow roughly half an hour on site, in most cases.
Finally, our technicians start the car. With new diesel in, it runs while we confirm it is running correctly, and then we leave. If it is noticed soon, the car very seldom has long-term damage, and the entire job takes place where it is. Paying is that day, never upfront. For your insurer, you get a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer. It is worth knowing: many insurers include misfuelling cover, so a quick look at your policy while you wait pays.
About Fordhouses, for a moment
Fordhouses is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, situated near the River Penk in the West Midlands. Fordhouses sits at an elevation of around 115 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Fordhouses is close to several nearby places, including Bushbury, Coven Heath, and Pendeford, and is approximately 2.9 miles from Wolverhampton city centre.
Fordhouses and West Midlands: AdBlue drains across the area
Fordhouses is a residential suburb, and the same vans that cover it work the places around it too, Coven Heath and Pendeford among them, across the WV postcode area. A postcode starting WV10 6 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Black Country Millennium Forest or in a car park in the middle of Fordhouses, it doesn't need to shift. Our van drains it where it stands. If you are somewhere hard to describe, near St. James Church or close to a boundary, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Your situation, summed up
Not run yet: keep the vehicle off then ring. Whatever case applies, Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest on 0333 366 0103, across West Midlands and in Fordhouses — once you stop, turn off and ring, if it has run.