Gillow Heath: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
One fact matters most when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and that is whether the motor has run afterwards. Out in Braddocks Hay or here around Gillow Heath, an unstarted motor should stay that way. Normally this is emptying and properly flushing it right there around Gillow Heath — and so keep your key and engine off then call 0333 366 0103. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The job is bigger, but the first stage is the same.
Compare what happened to one of the ones below, wherever in Staffordshire you are.
At the petrol pump in Gillow Heath: AdBlue in a diesel
You are at the pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. Whether Esso, Sainsbury's or anywhere else in Gillow Heath, the situation is the same.
Put simply: no better place to be to discover it. The AdBlue is inside the tank and nowhere else. Nothing has sucked it in.
What to do: do not get back in and fire it up to clear the pump. Three jobs: a shove into a space with the attendants assisting, the bottle kept, and a call to us from the forecourt. Can't move the car by the pump? Explosion-proof equipment makes a live forecourt sensible, so it can be drained in place.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a Gillow Heath drive?
The warning light had been on for days. Only at the recycling bin, the empty container in hand, did you glance back at the cap you'd opened at the drive. Houses just off Well Lane get caught out as much as anywhere else.
Meaning? As long as the vehicle hasn't been driven since, it's close to the forecourt case. Diesel and AdBlue keep apart: the AdBlue drops to the base of your tank and stays put, no matter how long the night.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so no one moves the car in the morning. Then ring. Your driveway is where it gets drained, be it around Gillow Heath or Pot Bank. Night-time clears beside a house are no problem: the pumps are quiet.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving in Gillow Heath?
Filled up, pulled away, and before long your engine was running roughly, blowing smoke, losing power, or flashing up the dash. City Bank, say, or the way towards Stoke-on-Trent — a run of under 10 miles.
Meaning? The fuel pump has sucked the AdBlue in. Distance sets how deep it gets: filter and pipework to begin with, then the injection pump and each injector. More driving, more restarts: further it goes.
Next: pick a safe place, stop, then turn the motor off. Gillow Heath lies under 10 miles from the M6; there, come off at the next junction instead of pressing on for the services. Don't restart it to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Phone us and say how far you travelled.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company cars
You've had the vehicle barely a week. The AdBlue filler is right next to the diesel filler, which you did not know, because your own vehicle either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Any driver, wherever across Staffordshire, could make the same.
In short: an extra step on top of the situations above, which depend on if it has run. Many hire and company contracts want the owner to approve work on the car.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is quicker settled before our technicians arrive than after. Stranded near St. Lawrence or at Congleton till someone replies, your vehicle remains switched off throughout.
Unsure about AdBlue in the diesel tank around Gillow Heath?
Now and then, "I think so" is all anyone can truthfully say. What cap was taken off, you can't say; meanwhile the bottle weighs lighter than expected, and ammonia hangs by your filler. A rushed top-up by the gates of Kingsfield First School, or a visit to a friend in Whitemoor: either fit.
In short: spillage round the filler leaves your motor unharmed. In the diesel tank, by contrast, AdBlue damages it. You cannot tell which by turning the ignition, and doing so will draw in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Next: act as though it got in, and leave the engine off. Inspecting a tank that proves clean beats emptying one once it's been run — so phone then tell us what you noticed.
What each AdBlue drain around Gillow Heath has in common
Whichever scenario you are in, this job starts the same way. Three things come once our engineers arrive — at a filling station, a drive, a road by Biddulph Valley Leisure Centre or the car park at Staffordshire Knot: the fluid, the amount, and if the motor has been started. Replies shape the job; the quote comes by phone while nobody has set off yet.
Then that tank is drained and your system cleaned thoroughly, which matters 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, flushed or renewed as needed; fresh diesel; and a check of your car. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
Firing it up comes at the end. Before our engineers go, it is checked to make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel. When it's caught quickly, the vehicle very rarely has long-term damage, and the whole job happens where it is. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment on the day, no money upfront. Dig out your insurance while we arrive: misfuelling cover comes built into many policies.
About Gillow Heath itself
Gillow Heath is a suburban area in Staffordshire, situated near the River Biddulph and overlooking the surrounding countryside. Gillow Heath sits at an elevation of 173 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Gillow Heath is located close to several nearby places, including Pot Bank, Biddulph, and Congleton Edge, and is approximately 7.2 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Gillow Heath has a population of around 2242 residents.
AdBlue drains around Gillow Heath and across Staffordshire
Gillow Heath is a residential suburb, and the same vans that cover it work the places around it too, Biddulph and Congleton Edge among them, across the ST postcode area. A postcode starting ST8 6 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Whether the vehicle is on a lay-by on the way to Biddulph Grange Gardens or in a car park in the middle of Gillow Heath, it doesn't need to move. We drain the vehicle where it sits. Assuming doesn't help near Biddulph War Memorial, on a county line or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
The one-line version
Not run yet: keep the car off then call. Started already? Stop, turn off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whatever case, in Gillow Heath and Staffordshire, on 0333 366 0103.