What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Meppershall
One fact matters most once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and that is if your engine has run afterwards. Not started so far? Then keep it like that, wherever the car sits — Meppershall or Upton End. Normally this means emptying and thoroughly rinsing it right there in Meppershall — so keep your key and engine off then call 0333 366 0103. Stop the minute you safely can and switch off, if it has already run. Stage one remains unchanged, even if the work is bigger.
Anywhere in Bedfordshire it took place, one of the situations below fits yours.
Meppershall forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
Imagine it: stood by the petrol pump, holding the bottle, you realise the cap you opened was not the right one. It could be the Esso, or the JET, or a different station around Meppershall.
Put simply: there is no better place to be to discover it. No pump has pulled it in, so the AdBlue stays just in the tank.
Freeing the petrol pump is no excuse to start it — and so do not get back in. Ask the attendants to help you push the car into a parking spot, keep the till receipt or the bottle, and call us from the forecourt. If it can't be moved, it can be emptied at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a working forecourt.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a Meppershall drive?
The warning light had been on for days. A bottle from the shop, emptied in on the driveway — and it's only at the recycling that the cap caught your eye. Driveways near Shefford Road get it as much as any other street.
Meaning? Provided your vehicle hasn't moved since, it is second to the forecourt case. As it is unable to blend, AdBlue settles to the base in the tank and waits. A night parked alters none of that.
Next: the keys indoors, and so nobody takes your car off first thing. After that, ring. Your drive is where it is drained, whether around Meppershall or Upper Stondon. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Drove off with AdBlue in a diesel around Meppershall?
A short way after filling up, your engine began misbehaving: roughness, smoke, lost power, warnings on the dash. Maybe it was on Fildyke Road, perhaps on the way out towards Milton Keynes, under 25 miles away.
Meaning? Your fuel pump has sucked the AdBlue in. Mileage sets how far it gets: filter and pipework first, then the high-pressure pump and each injector. Each restart, like each mile, pushes it on.
What to do: pull over where it's safe then switch off. Exit at the next junction — not the services beyond — if you're on the A1(M), under 10 miles from Meppershall. Starting it again to test gets nothing — AdBlue doesn't clear on its own. Let us hear the distance covered as you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
Seven days back, it was unknown to you. Unbeknown to you, the two inlets sit side by side here — not like your own vehicle, which has none or keeps it elsewhere. Anywhere you are across Bedfordshire, any driver could slip up.
In short: one extra stage on top of the situations above, and those turn on whether it has run. Many rental and company contracts require the owner's sign-off for repairs.
What to do: ring the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is faster settled before our technicians turn up than after. Leave it off as the answer comes, even if you are waiting at Arlesey or close to Meppershall Village Hall.
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Not sure, in Meppershall
Honestly, the best answer might be that you think it did. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there's a faint smell of ammonia round the filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. Maybe it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Meppershall Church of England Academy, or on a friend's drive in Lower Stondon.
The point: the engine is not harmed by a little AdBlue splashed around the filler. A diesel tank with AdBlue in it is a different matter. You can't tell which by turning the key, and doing so would draw in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Your move: act as though it did, and don't start the motor. Tell us what you noticed on the phone. A clear tank checked counts as a better outcome than a run one drained.
The common ground in every Meppershall AdBlue drain
Every situation has the same start to the work. Our technicians come to the car, whether it is on a forecourt, a drive, the car park at the pub in the village or a side street close to St Mary's Church, and ask three things: what was put in, roughly how much, and if your motor has been run. The price comes on the call, before a van leaves, and the replies set the job.
Then the tank is emptied and your system flushed thoroughly, which matters more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel is put in once the fuel filter is flushed or changed, and the car is finally tested. Where your engine has not been started, allow about half an hour once we arrive, in most cases.
Last, we start it. With fresh diesel in, it runs while we make sure it's running smoothly, and then we leave. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, and when it's spotted quickly, lasting damage is very unusual. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Check your insurance while we're en route: cover for misfuelling comes included in plenty of policies.
About Meppershall, briefly
Meppershall is a village in Bedfordshire, situated in the eastern part of the county, with an elevation of around 71 metres. Meppershall lies approximately 36 miles north of London and is close to the nearby cities of Milton Keynes and the surrounding villages of Upper Stondon, Campton, and Bury End. Meppershall has a population of around 1183 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing.
AdBlue drains about Meppershall and across Bedfordshire
Over SG postcodes, the vans serving Meppershall — a rural village — work surrounding places as well, Campton and Bury End among them. Giving us your SG17 5 postcode pins you fastest of all.
No moving is required, be it parked centrally in Meppershall or on a layby heading to The Spinney, and so leave it put. Our engineers drain the vehicle where it sits. Ring and check rather than guess if you're close to Meppershall Castel, near a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain.
Your scenario, summed up
Not run yet: keep it off then call. Run already: pull over, switch down, ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, in Meppershall or wherever in Bedfordshire.