AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Higher Summerseat: What Now?
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: whether your motor has been run since it was put in. Not started yet? Then keep it that way, whether the car is — Higher Summerseat or Greenmount. Keep nothing on, ring 0333 366 0103, then count on a thorough flush after a drain, carried out right where the vehicle sits around Higher Summerseat. Where the motor has run, stop somewhere safe straight away, then turn it off. A larger job, then, yet the identical opening move.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever across Greater Manchester it happened.
On a Higher Summerseat forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Imagine it: stood by the pump, gripping the bottle, you realise the filler you opened was not the correct one. It might be the Esso, or the Shell, or a different station in Higher Summerseat.
In short: there is no better place exists to discover it. The AdBlue is inside your tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
Clearing the pump is no excuse to start it — and so do not get back in. Get the attendants to help pushing it to a bay, save the receipt, then phone us from there. Draining it there at the pump is possible when it can't be moved, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
At home in Higher Summerseat with AdBlue in the diesel tank
Several days had passed with the dash light on. Only at the recycling bin, the empty container in your hand, did you look back at the cap you had used at the drive. Drives close to Haworth Avenue get it as much as any other street.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of your tank and waits there. Overnight doesn't change that.
Your move: keys in the house, and so no one drives the vehicle anywhere at breakfast. After that, phone. Holcombe Brook or Higher Summerseat: wherever your driveway sits, that's where it gets drained. Even at night, our pumps are quiet enough for a residential street.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving in Higher Summerseat?
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard arrived a mile or two after the top-up. It might have been heading for Salford, under 15 miles away, or just along Newcombe Road.
What it means: your fuel system has pulled the AdBlue in. The high-pressure pump and each injector get it as well on a longer trip, after the fuel filter and lines have had it. More driving, more starts: further it travels.
What to do: pull over where it's safe and switch off. Leave by the first junction — not the services beyond — if you're on the M66, under 3 miles from Higher Summerseat. It will not have cleared, and so there's no sense restarting to check. Call, and say what distance your car was driven.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
You have had the car barely a week. On your own vehicle, AdBlue is missing or elsewhere. On this one, the cap is right by your diesel cap — a surprise to you. Anyone, anywhere in Greater Manchester, could do it.
What it means: the same as the scenarios above, depending on whether it has run, with one more stage. Work on your vehicle often requires the owner's approval under rental or fleet terms.
Sorting it before the van turn up is quicker, so ring the hire company or your fleet manager, then us. Stuck near Emmanuel Church Centre or outside Bromley Cross till the firm replies, your car stays switched off the whole time.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, around Higher Summerseat
At times the honest answer is "I think so". What cap was taken off, you can't say; but the bottle weighs lighter than expected, and a whiff of ammonia hangs by the filler. Possibly it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Holcombe Brook Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Summerseat.
In short: spillage round the filler leaves the engine unharmed. Once it's inside your diesel tank, though, it does. If there is AdBlue in that tank, starting your car will pull it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Next: act as though it got in, then keep the motor off. Checking a tank that turns out clean beats draining one after it's been run — so ring and tell us what you saw.
The common ground in each Higher Summerseat AdBlue drain
Each case gets the same opening to the job. Three things are asked once our technicians reach the car — on a forecourt, a driveway, a street beside Holcombe Brook Tennis Club or the car park outside Hamers Arms: the liquid, the amount, and if the motor has been started. The price is given over the phone, before a van leaves, and the replies set the work.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a careful flush — more important with urea than after petrol, because crystals and corrosion won't go by themselves, no matter how long it sits. Clean diesel goes in once the filter is cleaned or changed, and your car is finally checked. Never started? Then about half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
Our technicians start it at the end. Our check that it runs correctly on fresh diesel comes before our technicians head off. The entire job is done where your car is, and if it's caught early, permanent damage is very uncommon. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, nothing in advance. Check your insurance before we're en route: misfuelling cover is built into plenty of policies.
About Higher Summerseat
Higher Summerseat is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Irwell and close to the towns of Ramsbottom and Bury. Higher Summerseat has a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities, set amidst the rolling hills and valleys of the North West. Higher Summerseat sits at an elevation of 138 metres, with nearby Holcombe Brook and Lower Summerseat providing additional local services and facilities.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Higher Summerseat included
Lower Summerseat and Brooksbottoms have the same teams as Higher Summerseat, a residential suburb, plus further towns over BL postcodes. Telling us a BL0 9 postcode finds you quickest of all.
No towing is required, be it parked in the centre of Higher Summerseat or on a lay-by en route to Summerseat Nature Reserve, so leave it where it is. The van drains it in place. Tricky to pin down? By Greenmount Cricket Club or a border? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
Your scenario, summed up
Not run yet: keep the vehicle off then ring. Started already? Pull over, turn off, phone. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest whatever it is, across Higher Summerseat and Greater Manchester, on 0333 366 0103.