AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Goodshaw Fold: What Now?
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: if the engine has been run since it got in. Wherever your car stands — Crawshawbooth, Goodshaw Fold — never run an engine that has not been started yet. Keep nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, and expect a proper flush after a drain, carried out just where your vehicle sits in Goodshaw Fold. When the engine has been run, stop somewhere safe first, then switch the vehicle off. A bigger job, yes, but the identical first move.
Anywhere in Lancashire it happened, one of the cases below matches yours.
Goodshaw Fold forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
Only now, nozzle yet in hand, you realise that the cap you took off was the wrong one, right at the pump. Perhaps you're at the Shell, perhaps at the Texaco, maybe somewhere else around Goodshaw Fold.
Meaning? Finding out here is as good as it can be. Still inside the tank, and no fuel drawn through: that's where the AdBlue is.
Next: resist the temptation to fire it up just to free up the petrol pump. Ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle into a parking spot, keep the till receipt or the bottle, then phone us from the forecourt. The equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt, so a vehicle that cannot be pushed clear gets drained right at the petrol pump.
Goodshaw Fold, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the dash, a warning had shown for days. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the driveway, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look a second time at the cap. Homes just off Goodshaw Fold Road are caught out as much as anywhere else.
The upshot: no driving since makes this nearly equal to finding it at the petrol pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of that tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
Next: stop an early-morning move by putting the keys indoors, then ring us. In Loveclough or right here around Goodshaw Fold, the draining happens at your driveway. Night-time empties outside a house are no problem: the pumps are low-noise.
Goodshaw Fold: set off with AdBlue in a diesel?
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later the engine began to run roughly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Possibly it was on Sliven Clod Road, possibly on the way out towards Preston, under 25 miles away.
The upshot: the system has drawn AdBlue in already. The injection pump and each injector see it as well on a longer run, after the fuel filter and pipework have had it. It goes deeper with every mile driven and every restart.
Do this: pull up anywhere sensible, then turn your engine off. Exit by the first junction — not the services beyond — if you're on the M65, under 5 miles from Goodshaw Fold. No trial starts: clearing is not something AdBlue does. Phone us and say how far you went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company cars
It is a car you have had for a week. Your own car either has no AdBlue or puts it somewhere different, so no one warned you the AdBlue cap was just beside the diesel. It can happen to anyone, anywhere across Lancashire.
The upshot: exactly as above, split by if it ran, but with one added step. The owner frequently has to approve any work, under many rental and company contracts.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's faster settled before our engineers get there than after. Stranded by Goodshaw Baptist Church or outside Hapton until the firm replies, the vehicle remains turned off the whole time.
Not sure it was AdBlue in your diesel tank, Goodshaw Fold?
"I think so" is often the most honest as it gets. A slight ammonia-like smell hangs around your filler, the bottle feels too light, and the cap you took off is hard to recall. A rushed stop by the gates of Crawshawbooth Primary School, or a visit to a friend in Dunnockshaw: both fit.
What it means: a little spilled around your filler does no harm to the motor. The diesel tank with AdBlue in it is a different matter. Starting the car cannot tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in the tank it would suck it in.
Next: assume it went in, then keep your engine off. Ring us and describe what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
Goodshaw Fold: what each AdBlue drain has in common
The job begins the same way, whatever the case. Three questions are asked when our technicians reach your car — at a forecourt, a drive, a street beside St Mary & All Saints or the car park at The White Bull: the fluid, the quantity, and if the motor has run. On the phone, before dispatch, you are told our quote, and those answers decide the work too.
A thorough flush follows the drain. With petrol it is routine; with AdBlue it's crucial, because crystals build up and certain metals are attacked, and none of it rinses out unaided. Next comes the filter — flushed, or replaced when needed — then fresh diesel, and a test of the car. Never started? Then about half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
Our engineers fire it up at the end. Our check that it runs correctly on clean diesel comes before our engineers head off. Long-term damage is very unusual if it is noticed early, and the entire job is done where the vehicle is. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling, so check yours while the van travels.
About Goodshaw Fold itself
Goodshaw Fold is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated near the River Irwell and characterised by its terraced housing. Goodshaw Fold sits at an elevation of 289 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Goodshaw Fold is located near several smaller communities, including Loveclough and Goodshaw Chapel, and is approximately 16.6 miles from Preston.
Goodshaw Fold and Lancashire: AdBlue drains across the area
Over BB postcodes, the teams serving Goodshaw Fold — a residential suburb — work surrounding towns as well, Goodshaw Chapel and Goodshaw among them. Fastest of all: a BB4 8 postcode for where you stand.
Whether the vehicle is on a lay-by on the way to Old Hall Plantation or in a car park in the middle of Goodshaw Fold, it doesn't need to move. Where it stands, that is where it is cleared. Awkward to pin down? Close to St Paul or a border? Asking is better than assuming, and so ring.
Your situation, summed up
Motor never started: phone, and leave it switched off. Whichever line fits, Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest on 0333 366 0103, across Lancashire and in Goodshaw Fold — after you pull over, switch off then phone, if it's run.