What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Harwell
Has your motor run since the AdBlue got in? That single point decides almost everything about what comes next. Not started so far? Then keep the vehicle like that, whether your car is — Harwell or Coscote. Leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103; it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Harwell. Pull over the moment you safely can then turn off, if it has been run. Step one stays unchanged, even if the job grows.
Anywhere around Oxfordshire it took place, one of the cases below matches yours.
Harwell forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
The cap you unscrewed was the wrong one — and you only notice it while you're stood at the petrol pump, bottle or nozzle in your hand. Possibly you're at the Murco, perhaps at the BP, maybe somewhere else around Harwell.
What it means: this is the ideal location to find out. Just your tank holds AdBlue; no component beyond it has drawn any in.
Do this: stay out of the driver's seat, even if the pump needs freeing. Ring us from the forecourt once your vehicle is in a bay — the attendants will help push it — and save the bottle. The equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a live forecourt, so a car that can't be pushed away is emptied right at the pump.
AdBlue in the diesel tank at home around Harwell
For days the dash had been nagging you. A bottle bought at the shop, emptied in on the driveway — and it's only by the bin that the cap caught your eye. It occurs on driveways just off Church Lane as commonly as anywhere.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. Diesel and AdBlue keep separate: the AdBlue settles to the floor of the tank and stays put, however long the night.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so no one moves the vehicle in the morning. Then ring. Your driveway is where it is drained, be it around Harwell or Rowstock. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving around Harwell?
A mile or two after topping up, the engine started misbehaving: roughness, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash. Loder Road, perhaps, or the way to Oxford — a run of under 15 miles.
The upshot: the system has pulled AdBlue through already. It's been through the filter and the fuel lines and, the further you went, into the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injectors. Each restart, like every mile, carries it deeper.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so then switch off. Harwell lies under 10 miles from the M4; on it, pull off at the first junction rather than pressing on to the services. Restarting it to check achieves nothing — AdBlue doesn't clear itself. Let us hear the mileage covered as you call.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
You've just had the vehicle a week. Your own vehicle either does without AdBlue or puts it somewhere different, and so no one warned you the AdBlue inlet sits just next to your diesel. Throughout Oxfordshire, nobody is immune.
Meaning? Whatever case above applies here — run or unrun — plus one further stage. Plenty of hire and fleet agreements require the owner's approval for work.
Sorting it before we arrives is faster, so ring the rental company or your fleet manager, and then us. Stranded by Church Farmhouse or at Didcot Parkway till the firm answers, your car remains switched off the whole time.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, in Harwell
Truthfully, the only answer may be that you think it did. What cap came off, you cannot say; meanwhile the bottle feels lighter than it ought to, and ammonia hangs by the filler. A rushed stop by the gates of Harwell Primary School, or a call to a friend in West Hagbourne: both fit.
Meaning? Drips around the filler never reach your engine at all. If it is inside the diesel tank, though, it does. Any AdBlue in that tank would be pulled in by firing up your car, and the start would not settle which it is in any case.
Next: assume it got in, and leave the motor off. Ring us and describe what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out clean than drain one that has already been run.
Harwell: what each AdBlue drain has in common
The work opens the same way, whichever the situation. Forecourt, drive, The Harwellian's car park or a road beside Harwell Village Hall — our van comes to your vehicle, and three answers come next: what fluid, which quantity, and if it ran. On the phone, before dispatch, you hear the quote, and those answers decide the job too.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a careful flush — more important after urea than with petrol, since crystals and corrosion will not go on their own, however long it sits. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Where your engine has not been started, allow roughly half an hour once we arrive, for most cases.
The final step is firing it up. Our technicians make sure it runs correctly on new diesel before we leave. The whole job is done where your car is, and when it is spotted quickly, permanent damage is very rare. Nothing is paid upfront, settlement is made on the day, and you receive what the insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Worth knowing: many insurers include misfuelling cover, so a check of your documents as you wait is worthwhile.
About Harwell itself
Harwell is a village in Oxfordshire, situated approximately 10 miles south of Oxford and 50 miles west of London. Harwell sits in a rural area at an elevation of around 80 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Rowstock and Milton Hill. Harwell has a population of around 2562 people, predominantly living in detached houses.
AdBlue drains about Harwell and across Oxfordshire
Harwell is a rural village, and the same teams that cover it work the towns near it too, Milton Hill and Milton Heights among them, across the OX postcode area. Quickest of all: a OX11 0 postcode to show your location.
Centre of Harwell or a lay-by near Harwell Recreation Ground: either way it sits, the vehicle never needs to move at all for this drain. The van drains it where it stands. Awkward to explain? Close to Saint Matthew or a county line? Asking beats assuming, and so ring.
Your scenario, summed up
Where it has not started, ring and leave it that way. Run already? Pull over, turn off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder whatever case, in Harwell and Oxfordshire, on 0333 366 0103.