What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Hardwick
Has your motor turned over since the AdBlue went in? That single point decides almost everything about what comes next. Not started so far? Then leave the vehicle like that, whether your car is — Hardwick or Highgate. Leave the engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103; it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Hardwick. Where your engine has been run, stop safely straight away, then switch the vehicle off. A larger job, then, yet the identical first move.
Compare your case to one of the ones below, wherever across Norfolk you happen to be.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Hardwick forecourt
You're 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. Maybe you're at the Tesco, maybe at the Sainsbury's, perhaps somewhere else in Hardwick.
The upshot: of all places to find out, this is the best. The AdBlue is inside that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has sucked it in.
What to do: don't get back in and crank it to clear the petrol pump. A few jobs: a push into a bay with the staff assisting, the bottle saved, and a call to us from the forecourt. Draining it there at the petrol pump is fine if it cannot be moved, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
AdBlue in your diesel tank at home in Hardwick
For days the dash had been warning you. Only at the recycling bin, the empty bottle in hand, did you look back at the cap you had used at the drive. It takes place on driveways just off Hansa Road as regularly as anywhere.
Meaning? As long as your vehicle hasn't been driven since, it's second to the forecourt case. As it is reluctant to mix, AdBlue settles to the base inside that tank and waits. A night standing changes nothing.
Your move: the keys in the house, so no one drives your vehicle off first thing. After that, phone. South Lynn or Hardwick: whichever your driveway sits, that's where it is emptied. Night-time clears beside a house are fine: the pumps are quiet.
Hardwick: drove off with AdBlue in a diesel?
Rough running, smoke, lost power or a lit dashboard started a mile or two beyond the top-up. Anywhere along Hardwick Road or on the road towards Ely — under 25 miles away.
The point: the system has pulled AdBlue in by now. Past the filter, along the lines, and — the further the distance — deeper into the injection pump and each injector. More miles, more starts: further it goes.
What to do: pull over where it is safe to do so then switch off. Leave at the next junction — not the services beyond — if you are on the A1(M), under 50 miles from Hardwick. It won't have cleared, and so there's no sense restarting to check. Phone us and say how far you went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company motors
You have only had the vehicle a week. On your own car, AdBlue is absent or elsewhere. On this one, its inlet is right next to the diesel cap — news to you. It can happen to anyone, anywhere in Norfolk.
The point: exactly as above, divided by whether it ran, but with one added stage. Many hire and company contracts want the owner to approve work on your car.
Do this: hire firm or fleet manager to begin with, us second, because settling it early saves time. Stuck by King's Lynn Village Sign or outside Kings Lynn until the firm answers, the car stays switched off throughout.
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Not sure, in Hardwick
"I think so" is sometimes as honest as it gets. What cap came off, you cannot recall; meanwhile the bottle feels less than it ought to, and ammonia hangs by your filler. Maybe at a friend's drive in Fairstead, or rushing outside St Michael's Church of England Academy on the school run.
The point: the engine is not hurt by a little AdBlue splashed around the filler. If it is inside your diesel tank, though, it does. Starting the vehicle won't tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in the tank it will draw it in.
What to do: treat it as if it went in. Don't fire it up. Checking a tank that turns out free of AdBlue beats draining one after it's been run — so phone then tell us what you saw.
Hardwick: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Whatever the case, one start is used. Wherever your car stands — The Gatehouse's car park, a street beside Kings Lynn Baptist Church, a drive, a forecourt — the van arrives and asks for the fluid, the amount, and if your motor has been run. On the phone, ahead of dispatch, you are told our quote, and those replies decide the job too.
Then that tank is emptied and the fuel 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 cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. If the motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
The last step is starting the car. Before we leave, it is checked to make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel. Our technicians do the whole job where the vehicle is, and lasting damage is very uncommon if it has been spotted early. Payment comes on the day, never in advance. For the insurer, you get a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer. Many policies cover misfuelling, and so check yours while the van travels.
About Hardwick itself
Hardwick is a small suburban area in Norfolk, situated near the coast and close to the nearby places of South Lynn, St James End, and Kings Lynn. Hardwick has a relatively low elevation of around 5 metres above sea level and is located approximately 24 miles from the city of Ely. Hardwick is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region. Hardwick is also within commuting distance of London, being around 88 miles from the capital.
AdBlue drains round Hardwick and across Norfolk
Being a residential suburb, Hardwick has the same vans as the surrounding places — Kings Lynn, St James End — all the way through PE postcodes. The location is quickest from a postcode beginning PE30 4.
Whether the vehicle is on a lay-by on the way to The Chase or in a car park in the middle of Hardwick, it doesn't need to move. We drain it where it sits. Phone and ask rather than guess when you are close to Brothers 4 Life Kings Lynn BJJ, on a boundary, or somewhere tricky to pin down.
Your situation, in one line
Not run yet: keep it off and ring. Whichever case applies, Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest on 0333 366 0103, throughout Norfolk and within Hardwick — once you pull over, switch off then ring, if it has run.