AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Lower Woolbrook: What Now?
Everything hinges on a single fact: if your engine has started after the AdBlue was added — more than anything else. Not started yet? Then keep it that way, wherever the vehicle is — Lower Woolbrook or Land Part. Keep nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, and count on a thorough flush after a drain, carried out right where the car sits around Lower Woolbrook. When the engine has run, stop somewhere safe straight away, then turn the car off. The job is bigger, but the first stage is the same.
Further down: the situations our engineers meet, anywhere in Devon. Choose the one that fits.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Lower Woolbrook forecourt
Picture it: standing by the petrol pump, holding the nozzle, you realise the cap you opened wasn't the correct one. Possibly you are at the the nearest petrol station, maybe at the Esso, perhaps somewhere else around Lower Woolbrook.
The point: of every spot to notice, this is the best. Still in the tank, and no fuel drawn through: that's where the AdBlue is.
What to do: don't get back in and fire it up to clear the pump. Get the attendants to lend a hand pushing it into a bay, hold on to the receipt, then ring us from there. If it can't be shifted, it can be cleared at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a busy forecourt.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a Lower Woolbrook drive?
The warning light had been on for days. Only at the recycling bin, the empty bottle in your hand, did you look back at the cap you'd used at the driveway. Homes just off Manstone Avenue are hit as often as anywhere else.
Put simply: if your car hasn't moved since, it is nearly equal to finding out at the forecourt. Being reluctant to mix, AdBlue drops low inside your tank and stays. One night parked changes nothing.
Next: prevent an early move by keeping the keys in the house, then phone us. Out in Middle Woolbrook or here around Lower Woolbrook, the drain is done at your driveway. Our equipment runs quietly enough that it won't wake the street at night.
On the road in Lower Woolbrook with AdBlue in a diesel
Filled up, drove away, and soon the engine was running unevenly, blowing smoke, losing power, or lighting up the dash. Maybe it was on Woolbrook Road, perhaps on the way out towards Exeter, under 15 miles away.
In short: the AdBlue has been sucked into the system. Distance sets how far it goes: filter and pipework first, then the injection pump and each injector. Each restart, like every mile, pushes it on.
Stop somewhere safe — that is the next step — then switch everything off. Service stations further along are too far: from the M5, under 10 miles out of Lower Woolbrook, use the next junction. Don't restart the vehicle to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Call, saying what distance your vehicle was driven.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
You have just driven this vehicle a week. Unbeknown to you, the AdBlue and diesel inlets are side by side here — unlike your own vehicle, which has none or stores it elsewhere. Anyone, wherever across Devon, might do it.
What it means: the same as the scenarios above, depending on whether it's run, with one more step. The owner frequently needs to approve the work, under many rental and fleet contracts.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is quicker settled before our engineers arrive than after. If you're stranded in the car park outside Feniton, or by St Francis of Assisi, whilst you wait for an answer, leave your car off.
Unsure about AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lower Woolbrook?
"I think so" is often the most honest answer there is. A slight ammonia smell lingers around the filler, the bottle seems too light, and which cap came off is hard to recall. Perhaps it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Sidmouth Church of England (VA) Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Sid.
The point: the engine isn't hurt by a little AdBlue spilled on the outside. A diesel tank with AdBlue inside is another matter. Any AdBlue in that tank will be drawn in by turning on the car, and the start would not settle which it is in any case.
Do this: act as if it did, and don't start the engine. Describe what you saw on the phone. A clean tank checked counts as a better result than a run one drained.
What each AdBlue drain in Lower Woolbrook has in common
Every case gets the same start to the work. Anywhere your car is — The Balfour's car park, a street by Sidmouth Amateur Dramatic Society, a driveway, a filling station — the van gets there and asks about the liquid, the quantity, and if your motor has turned over. Your price comes over the phone, before a van leaves, and the replies shape the work.
Then your tank is drained and the system purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed or replaced, and your car is then tested. If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
The final step is starting the engine. With clean diesel in, it runs while our technicians make sure it's running properly, and then we go. Permanent damage is very rare when it's caught early, and the entire job is done where the car is. Paying is that day, never in advance. For the insurer, there is a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Lower Woolbrook, briefly
Lower Woolbrook is a suburban area in Devon, situated near the coast and approximately 12.9 miles from Exeter. Lower Woolbrook has a relatively low elevation of 37 metres and is close to nearby places such as Middle Woolbrook and Bulverton. Lower Woolbrook is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, which reflects the area's residential nature.
AdBlue drains across Devon, Lower Woolbrook included
As a residential suburb, Lower Woolbrook has the same vans as the surrounding towns — Higher Woolbrook, Bulverton — all the way across EX postcodes. The whereabouts comes quickest from a postcode beginning EX10 9.
Centre of Lower Woolbrook or a layby near The Knapp: wherever it sits, the car never needs to move at all for us. The van empties it where it stands. If you are somewhere hard to describe, close to Woolcombe Hall or close to a boundary, ring and ask rather than assuming.
The one-line version
Motor never started: ring, and leave it switched off. Run by now: stop, switch down, phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Lower Woolbrook or anywhere across Devon.