AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Goat Lees, and What to Do Next
One fact matters above all once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and that is if the engine has been started afterwards. Not started so far? Then leave it like that, wherever the vehicle sits — Goat Lees or Bybrook. Switch nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, and count on a thorough flush plus a drain, carried out just where the car stands around Goat Lees. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The job is bigger, yet the first stage is the same.
Anywhere across Kent it took place, one of the cases below matches yours.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Goat Lees forecourt
The cap you opened was the wrong one — and you only spot it as you're stood at the pump, bottle or the nozzle in your hand. Somewhere in Goat Lees, then — Willesborough Kennington Garages, Sainsbury's, or anywhere else nearby.
In short: no better place to be to spot it. The AdBlue is in your tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
Next: resist the urge to start it just to free up the pump. Ring us from the forecourt once the vehicle is in a space — the staff will help push it — and keep the receipt. The equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt, and so a car that cannot be pushed away gets drained right at the petrol pump.
At home around Goat Lees with AdBlue in the diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. Picked up a bottle, tipped it in outside the house, binned the empty — and at that point checked the cap a second time, after the fact. Houses just off Sandyhurst Lane get caught out as often as everywhere else.
The upshot: zero miles since makes this nearly as good to spotting it at the pump. Being reluctant to blend, AdBlue drops low in that tank and waits. One night parked alters nothing.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so no one moves the vehicle in the morning. Then call. Kennington Lees or Goat Lees: wherever your driveway sits, that's where it gets cleared. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Goat Lees: drove off with AdBlue in a diesel?
A short way after topping up, the motor started misbehaving: rough running, smoke, less power, lights on your dash. Perhaps it was on Freathy Lane, perhaps on the way out towards Canterbury, under 15 miles away.
What it means: your fuel system has pulled the AdBlue in. The high-pressure pump and every injector get it as well on a bigger trip, after the filter and pipework have it. It travels deeper with every extra mile covered and each restart.
Next: pick a safe place, stop, and switch the engine off. Service stations farther along can wait: on the M20, under 3 miles out of Goat Lees, take the first junction. It will not have cleared, and so there's no point restarting to check. Let us hear the distance covered when you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company vehicles
A week back, it was new to you. The AdBlue filler sits right next to the diesel filler, which you did not know, since your own vehicle either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Across Kent, no one is safe from it.
What it means: the same as the scenarios above, depending on whether it's run, with one more step. Work on the vehicle frequently requires the owner's approval under hire or fleet agreements.
Do this: hire firm or your fleet manager to begin with, us next, because sorting it early saves time. Stranded near Eastwell Towers or at Ashford International until someone replies, the car remains switched off the whole time.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Goat Lees?
Truthfully, the best answer may be that you think it did. Which cap was taken off, you cannot say; meanwhile the bottle feels lighter than it ought to, and ammonia lingers by your filler. Maybe on a friend's driveway in Eastwell Park, or in a rush outside Goat Lees Primary School on the school run.
The point: the engine is not hurt by a little AdBlue splashed on the outside. AdBlue inside the diesel tank does. You can't tell which by turning the key, and doing so would suck in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Do this: act as though it did, and don't start the motor. Call us and describe what you saw; we would rather check a tank that turns out clean than drain one that has already been run.
The common ground in every Goat Lees AdBlue drain
The work begins the same way, whichever the situation. Filling station, driveway, The Rose's car park or a street beside Kennington United Reformed Methodist Church — the van reaches your vehicle, and three questions come next: which liquid, which quantity, and whether it ran. Those replies decide this work, and you get the price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then your tank is emptied and the system cleaned 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 does not rinse out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Where your engine has not been started, expect roughly half an hour once we arrive, in most cases.
The final step is starting the engine. We confirm it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. The whole job is done where your car is, and if it's caught soon, permanent damage is very uncommon. For your insurer: an engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment on the day, no money in advance. Check your insurance before we arrive: misfuelling cover is built into many policies.
About Goat Lees itself
Goat Lees is a suburban area in Kent, situated inland at an elevation of around 70 metres, and is located near the city of Canterbury. Goat Lees is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, and is part of the wider residential area that includes nearby Kennington Lees, Bockhanger, and Kennington. Goat Lees is approximately 49 miles from London and 11 miles from Canterbury, making it a commuter-friendly location. Goat Lees has a population of around 2563 residents.
AdBlue drains around Goat Lees, and across Kent too
Over TN postcodes, the teams serving Goat Lees — a residential suburb — work nearby places as well, Bockhanger and Kennington among them. The whereabouts comes clearest from a postcode beginning TN25 4.
Stopped en route to Sandyacres, or right in the centre of Goat Lees, your vehicle stays where it is — there's no need to move it anywhere. Where it stands, that's where it is cleared. Assuming won't help beside St. Mary's Kennington, close to a border or somewhere hard to describe; phone and check.
In one line: your situation
Motor not started: phone, and leave it alone. Started by now? Stop, switch off, phone. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest whichever it is, across Goat Lees and Kent, on 0333 366 0103.