What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Little Carleton
Has your motor turned over since the AdBlue got in? This one question decides almost everything about what comes next. Anywhere your car stands — Warbreck, Little Carleton — never start an engine that has not run yet. Keep nothing on, ring 0333 366 0103, and expect a thorough flush after a drain, carried out just where the car sits around Little Carleton. Already started? Pull over when you safely can, then switch it off. Step one stays the same, even if the job is bigger.
Below: the cases we see, wherever in Lancashire. Pick the one that fits.
Little Carleton forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
The cap you opened was the wrong one — and you just spot it as you're standing at the petrol pump, bottle or nozzle in hand. Perhaps you're at the Texaco, perhaps at the Gulf, possibly somewhere else around Little Carleton.
In short: no better place exists to spot it. Still inside the tank, with nothing pulled onwards: that is where the AdBlue is.
Do this: stay out of the driver's seat, even if the queue wants freeing. Have the attendants to lend a hand rolling it into a space, hold on to the receipt, then phone us from there. Draining it there at the pump is possible when it cannot be shifted, since the equipment is explosion-proof.
Little Carleton, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
For days the dashboard had been warning you. A bottle bought at the garage, tipped in on the drive — and it's just at the recycling that the cap caught your eye. It occurs on driveways just off Furlong Crescent as regularly as anywhere.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. On the floor of the tank sits exactly where AdBlue stays, because it won't mix with diesel — and a night passing makes nothing of the difference.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so nobody moves the vehicle in the morning. Then call. Highfurlong or Little Carleton: wherever your driveway sits, that's where it gets drained. Late-night clears beside a house are no problem: the pumps are low-noise.
On the road in Little Carleton with AdBlue in a diesel
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard started a mile or two after the top-up. It might have been heading for Preston, under 15 miles away, or just down Leyfield Close.
The upshot: your system has drawn AdBlue through by now. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — the more the mileage — on into the high-pressure pump and each injector. It travels deeper with each extra mile driven and each restart.
What to do: pull over where it's safe and switch off. Services further along can wait: from the M55, under 5 miles out of Little Carleton, use the first junction. No trial restarts: clearing isn't something AdBlue will do. Ring us and say how far you travelled.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You've only had this vehicle for days. The AdBlue filler sits right beside the diesel filler, which you did not know, because your own vehicle either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. It can happen to anyone, anywhere around Lancashire.
Put simply: one extra stage on top of the situations above, and those turn on whether it has run. Plenty of hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on your car.
Next: ring the hire company or your fleet manager first, then us — settling it before we arrive is quicker. If you are stuck in the car park at Layton, or by Horsebridge Community Centre, while you wait for an answer, leave your car off.
Not sure it was AdBlue in your diesel tank, Little Carleton?
At times the fair answer is "I think so". Too light, the bottle; a trace of ammonia near the filler; a hazy memory of the cap. Sound familiar? A rushed top-up by the gates of Boundary Primary School, or a call to a friend in Little Layton: either fit.
Meaning? Spills around the inlet never reach the motor at all. Inside your diesel tank, by contrast, AdBlue harms it. You cannot tell which by turning the key, and doing so would suck in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Do this: act as though it got in, and never start your motor. Tell us what you noticed on the phone. A clean tank checked is a happier outcome than a run one drained.
Each AdBlue drain in Little Carleton shares these stages
Every case has the same start to the work. Our engineers come to the vehicle, whether it's on a forecourt, a driveway, the car park outside Newton Arms or a side street near St Anne's Greenlands, and ask three things: what got in, about how much, and if your motor has been run. Answers set the work; the price follows on the call while no one has set off yet.
AdBlue crystallises and eats at certain metals in fuel systems, and so it does not rinse out unaided; that's why a full flush, after the drain, counts much more with AdBlue than with petrol. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. Most unstarted cars are a half-hour job after the moment our technicians arrive.
Starting the engine comes at the end. Before our engineers go, it is tested to be sure it runs properly on new diesel. Our engineers do the entire job where your car is, and permanent damage is very rare if it has been spotted quickly. Paying is that day, never upfront. For the insurer, there is a VAT invoice and a written report from the engineer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling, so check yours while the van travels.
About Little Carleton itself
Little Carleton is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated near the coast and approximately 14 miles west of Preston. Little Carleton has a relatively low elevation of 22 metres above sea level, and its proximity to the coast influences its local climate. Little Carleton is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which is typical of many suburban areas in the North West of England.
AdBlue drains round Little Carleton and across Lancashire
Little Carleton is a residential suburb, and the same vans that cover it work the places near it too, Normoss and Hoohill among them, across the FY postcode area. Giving us your FY3 7 postcode pins you fastest of all.
No towing is needed, be it parked centrally in Little Carleton or on a layby en route to Boundary Park, and so leave it put. Wherever it sits, that is where it gets emptied. Awkward to explain? By @thegrange or a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so ring.
Your situation, in one line
Engine not started: phone, and leave it switched off. Whichever line fits, Petrol in Diesel handles the rest on 0333 366 0103, throughout Lancashire and within Little Carleton — after you pull over, turn off then phone, if it has run.