Haswell: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: whether your motor has run since it got in. Wherever the vehicle is — Fleming Field, Haswell — never run an engine that has not been started yet. Keep nothing on, ring 0333 366 0103, and expect a thorough flush plus a drain, done just where the vehicle sits around Haswell. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Step one stays unchanged, even if the work grows.
Match what happened to one of the ones below, wherever across Durham you happen to be.
On a Haswell forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
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. Somewhere in Haswell, then — Esso, Shell, or anywhere else nearby.
Meaning? Finding out here is the best it can be. Nothing has drawn it through, and so the AdBlue sits only in that tank.
What to do: do not get back in and start the car to clear the pump. Get the staff to help pushing it to a space, hold on to the bottle, then phone us from there. The equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt, so a vehicle that can't be pushed clear gets cleared right at the petrol pump.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a Haswell drive?
For days the dash had been warning you. A bottle bought at the garage, emptied in at the drive — and it's just by the recycling that the cap caught a second look. Just off Front Street is not different from anywhere.
In short: if the vehicle hasn't been driven since, it's almost as good as spotting it at the pump. Diesel and AdBlue stay apart: the AdBlue drops to the base of that tank and remains there, no matter how long the night.
Next: stop any early drive by putting the keys in the house, then ring us. Your driveway is where it is emptied, be it in Haswell or High Haswell. Even at night, our pumps are quiet enough for a driveway.
On the road around Haswell with AdBlue in a diesel
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard started a mile or two after the fill. Church View, perhaps, or the way to Durham — a trip of under 10 miles.
Meaning? Your fuel pump has sucked the AdBlue up. It's been through the filter and the lines and, the further you went, into the high-pressure fuel pump and your injectors. More miles, more restarts: deeper it travels.
Do this: stop anywhere safe, then turn your engine off. Services further on are too far: from the A1(M), under 5 miles out of Haswell, take the first junction. Restarting it to check gets nothing — AdBlue never clears itself. Let us know the distance driven when you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company vehicles
It is a vehicle you have had for a week. Your own car either has no AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere, so nothing warned you the AdBlue inlet was right next to the diesel. Wherever you are around Durham, any driver can slip up.
Meaning? Whichever case above applies here — run or not — and one further step. Plenty of hire and company contracts want the owner to approve work on the vehicle.
Do this: rental firm or your fleet manager to begin with, us second, because settling it beforehand saves time. Waiting for an answer in the car park at Horden, or beside Parish Church of St. Paul, Haswell & Thornley? Keep the engine off throughout.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, in Haswell
Now and then, "I think so" is all you can honestly say. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there's a faint smell of ammonia around your filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. Perhaps it happened in a hurry at the school gates at South Hetton Primary, or on a friend's drive in South Hetton.
The upshot: the motor is not harmed by some AdBlue splashed around the outside. The diesel tank with AdBlue in it is a different story. You cannot tell which by turning the key, and doing so will draw in any AdBlue that is in your tank.
Your move: behave as though it got in, and never start the engine. Ring and give what you saw: we'd rather confirm a clean tank than drain one after the motor has run.
What every AdBlue drain in Haswell has in common
Whichever situation you are in, the job starts the same way. Three things come when our technicians reach the car — on a filling station, a drive, a street beside Haswell War Memorial or the car park outside The Oddfellows Arms: the liquid, the quantity, and if the motor has been started. On the phone, before dispatch, you are told our quote, and those answers decide the work too.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush — more important after urea than with petrol, since crystals and corrosion will not go on their own, however long it sits. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned or replaced, and the car is then tested. Where the engine hasn't run, expect about half an hour on site, for most jobs.
Our engineers fire it up at the end. Our technicians check it runs correctly on new diesel before we go. Long-term damage is very uncommon when it's spotted early, and the entire job is done where the car is. Payment comes on the day, never in advance. For your insurer, there is a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer. Dig out your insurance while we're en route: cover for misfuelling is built into plenty of policies.
About Haswell, briefly
Haswell is a village in County Durham, situated approximately 6.6 miles from the city of Durham, and has a population of around 1185 people. Haswell sits inland at an elevation of 143 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as High Haswell, Haswell Plough, and Haswell Moor. Haswell has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being the most predominant. Haswell is located in the North East region of England, about 232.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Haswell included
Being a rural village, Haswell shares its vans with the surrounding towns — Haswell Moor, Haswell Plough — all the way through DH postcodes. Quickest of all: a DH6 2 postcode for your location.
Stopped heading to Dabble Bank SSSI, or right in the centre of Haswell, the vehicle stays put — there is no need to move it at all. We drain the car where it sits. If you're somewhere hard to describe, near Methodist Chapel or close to a boundary, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Your situation, in one line
Engine not started: ring, and leave it switched off. Started already? Stop, switch off, ring. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder whichever case, in Haswell and Durham, on 0333 366 0103.