Heath Cross: 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: if your engine has run since it was put in. If it hasn't, keep it that way, whether your car is in Heath Cross itself or out in Langdown. Switch nothing on, call 0333 366 0103, then expect a thorough flush after a drain, done just where the car sits around Heath Cross. Where your engine has been run, stop safely first, then switch it off. It is a larger job, though step one does not change.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever around Devon it happened.
Heath Cross forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
Picture it: standing by the pump, gripping the nozzle, you realise the filler you took off was not the right one. Be it Esso, another forecourt nearby or somewhere else in Heath Cross, the case is identical.
The point: of every spot to find out, the forecourt is the best. The AdBlue is inside the tank and nowhere else. Nothing has drawn it in.
What to do: don't get back in and crank it to clear the petrol pump. Ring us from the forecourt after your vehicle is in a bay — the attendants will help push it — then save the bottle. Draining it right at the pump is possible if it can't be moved, since the equipment is explosion-proof.
AdBlue in the diesel tank at home in Heath Cross
The warning light had been on for days. Picked up a bottle, poured it in at home, recycled the empty — and at that point looked at the cap again, after the fact. Right off Heath Road is not different from anywhere.
Meaning? Provided the car has not been driven since, it's close to the forecourt case. Diesel and AdBlue stay separate: the AdBlue settles to the base of your tank and stays there, no matter how long it waits.
Keep the keys in the house tonight — or a person might take it off at breakfast — then phone us. In Spreyton or here in Heath Cross, the drain happens on your drive. Even at night, our pumps stay quiet enough for a residential street.
Set off with AdBlue in a diesel in Heath Cross?
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. Somewhere along Chapel Park or on the road to Exeter — under 15 miles away.
Meaning? Your pump has sucked the AdBlue up. Distance decides how deep it gets: filter and pipework first, then the injection pump and every injector. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Do this: stop somewhere safe, then switch the engine off. On the M5, under 15 miles from Heath Cross, that means the next exit, not the services further on. Do not restart the vehicle to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Phone, and say how far the car went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You have just had this vehicle for days. On your own car, AdBlue is absent or elsewhere. On this one, its cap is right by the diesel cap — news to you. Any driver, wherever around Devon, could make the same.
In short: one extra stage on top of the situations above, which turn on whether it has run. Any work on the car frequently requires the owner's approval under rental or company agreements.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is quicker settled before our technicians arrive than after. Keep it switched off as the reply comes, even if you're waiting outside Yeoford or close to St Michael.
Unsure about AdBlue in the diesel tank in Heath Cross?
"I think so" is sometimes the most honest answer there is. Too light, that bottle; a trace of ammonia near the filler; a hazy recollection of the cap. Sound familiar? Maybe it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Spreyton School, or on a friend's drive in Hittisleigh Barton.
Put simply: a spill near your filler does your motor unharmed. Inside your diesel tank, however, AdBlue damages it. If there is AdBlue in that tank, starting the car would draw it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Your move: behave as if it did, and never start the motor. Checking a tank that proves free of AdBlue is better than emptying one once it has been run — so ring then tell us what you noticed.
Heath Cross: what every AdBlue drain has in common
The work begins the same way, whatever your case. Three things are asked when our technicians arrive — on a filling station, a drive, a street beside St Martin (Disused) or the car park at the pub in the village: the liquid, the quantity, and whether the motor has been started. On the phone, ahead of anything else, you hear our price, and those answers shape the work too.
Draining that tank comes first, then a full flush — more important with urea than after petrol, since crystals and corrosion will not go by themselves, no matter how long you wait. Fresh diesel goes in once the fuel filter has been flushed or changed, and your car is then tested. Never started? Then roughly half an hour once we are there covers most jobs.
Our engineers fire it up at the end. Our engineers make sure it runs properly on new diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where your car is, and when it's spotted quickly, permanent damage is very uncommon. For your insurer: an engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment on the day, no money upfront. Check your insurance while we arrive: cover for misfuelling comes built into many policies.
About Heath Cross, briefly
Heath Cross is a small locality in inland Devon, situated approximately 191 metres above sea level. Heath Cross lies near several nearby villages, including Spreyton, Hillerton, and Itton, and is about 13.6 miles from the city of Exeter. Heath Cross has a population of around 520 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains around Heath Cross and across Devon
Heath Cross is a small village, and the same vans that cover it work the towns around it too, Hillerton and Itton among them, across the EX postcode area. The whereabouts comes clearest from a postcode beginning EX17 5.
Central Heath Cross or a lay-by towards Bewsley Copse: either way it is, your vehicle never needs to move at all for us. Draining is done right there. Guessing doesn't help beside St Andrew, close to a border or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
In one line: your scenario
Where it hasn't started, ring and keep it off. Run by now? Pull over, turn off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whatever it is, in Heath Cross and Devon, on 0333 366 0103.