AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Hanworth, and What to Do Next
Has your engine run since the AdBlue got in? This one question settles almost everything about what comes next. Wherever the vehicle stands — Wildridings, Hanworth — don't start an engine that hasn't been started yet. Leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103; it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Hanworth. Where the engine has been run, stop safely straight away, then turn the vehicle off. The job is bigger, but the first step is the same.
Compare your case to a situation from the ones below, wherever across Berkshire you happen to be.
On a Hanworth forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you opened was the wrong one — and you just notice it as you're stood at the pump, bottle or the nozzle in hand. It might be the Sainsbury's, or the BP, or a different forecourt around Hanworth.
Meaning? Finding out on the forecourt is the best it gets. Still in your tank, and no fuel drawn through: that is where the AdBlue sits.
Do this: stay out of the driver's seat, even if the queue wants freeing. Ask the staff to help you push the car into a parking space, keep the receipt or the bottle, and ring us from the forecourt. Emptying it right at the pump is fine if it can't be moved, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a Hanworth drive?
On the dash, a reminder had been lit all week. Only at the recycling bin, the empty container in hand, did you glance back at the cap you'd used on the drive. It occurs on driveways just off Hanworth Road as commonly as anywhere.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. On the floor of your tank sits where AdBlue waits, because it will not mix with diesel — and a night going by makes nothing of the difference.
Next: the keys in the house, so no one takes your vehicle anywhere at breakfast. After that, phone. In Great Hollands or here around Hanworth, the draining is done on your drive. Late-night drains beside a house are fine: the pumps are low-noise.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving in Hanworth?
Topped up, pulled away, and soon the motor was turning roughly, blowing smoke, down on power, or flashing up your dash. Maybe heading to Westminster, under 50 miles away, or just down Pembroke.
Meaning? The fuel pump has sucked the AdBlue in. The injection pump and each injector see it as well on a bigger run, once your filter and pipework have had it. It travels deeper with each mile driven and each restart.
What to do: pull over where it is safe to do so then switch off. Hanworth lies under 3 miles from the A329(M); on it, pull off at the first junction rather than pressing on for the services. Starting it again to test gets nothing — AdBlue never clears itself. Ring us and say how far you travelled.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company vehicles
You have had this car hardly a week. On your own car, AdBlue is absent or elsewhere. On this one, the cap is just by your diesel cap — news to you. It can happen to anyone, anywhere in Berkshire.
Put simply: one extra step on top of the situations above, and those depend on if it's run. Many rental and company agreements need the owner's sign-off for work.
Settling it before we arrives is faster, so phone the rental company or your fleet manager, and then us. If you're stranded in the car park outside Bracknell, or by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while you wait for an answer, leave your car off.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Hanworth?
Truthfully, the best answer might be that you think it did. Which cap was taken off, you can't say; meanwhile the bottle feels less than it ought to, and ammonia lingers by your filler. The gates of St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School, Bracknell in a hurry, say, or a friend's driveway over in Crown Wood.
What it means: a little spilled about the filler does no harm to your engine. Once it's inside the diesel tank, though, it does. If there is AdBlue in that tank, starting the car will draw it in, and it would not tell you which either.
Take it that it got in, and never start your engine. Call 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.
Every AdBlue drain around Hanworth shares these stages
Every situation gets the same opening to the job. Wherever your vehicle is — Cannie Man's car park, a street beside Caesar's Camp, a driveway, a filling station — our van arrives and asks about the fluid, the amount, and whether the motor has turned over. The price comes over the phone, ahead of anyone setting off, and the answers shape the work.
Then the tank is cleared and your system purged 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. Then is the fuel filter — flushed, or replaced where needed — then fresh diesel, and a test of your car. If the motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
The last step is firing it up. With new diesel in, it runs while our engineers make sure it is running properly, and then we head off. If it is caught quickly, the car very seldom has permanent damage, and the entire job takes place where it is. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many policies include misfuelling, and so check yours while the van travels.
About Hanworth, for a moment
Hanworth is a suburban area in Berkshire, situated inland at an elevation of 89 metres, and forms part of the larger Bracknell urban area. Hanworth is located near several other residential neighbourhoods, including Great Hollands, Birch Hill, and Easthampstead. Hanworth has a population of approximately 6506 people, and its housing stock is predominantly terraced. Hanworth is also within commuting distance of London, being around 28.6 miles from the city centre.
AdBlue drains across Berkshire, Hanworth included
As a residential suburb, Hanworth shares its vans with the nearby towns — Easthampstead, Birch Hill — right through RG postcodes. Your location is clearest from a postcode beginning RG12 7.
Stopped en route to Caesar's Camp, or right in the heart of Hanworth, the car stays where it is — there is no need to shift it anywhere. The drain is done on the spot. Ring and check instead of guessing when you're by Lepington Baptist Church, near a border, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Your situation, summed up
Engine never started: ring, and leave it switched off. Started by now? Stop, switch off, phone. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whichever case, across Hanworth and Berkshire, on 0333 366 0103.