AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Mowden, and What to Do Next
One fact counts above all once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is if your motor has been started since. Anywhere your vehicle stands — Pierremont, Mowden — don't start a motor that has not been started yet. Leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103; it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Mowden. Already run? Pull over when you safely can, then turn it off. The job is bigger, but the first stage is the same.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever across Durham it happened.
At the petrol pump in Mowden: AdBlue in a diesel
Just now, nozzle still in hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, there at the pump. Be it Shell, JET or somewhere else around Mowden, the situation is identical.
In short: no better spot exists to spot it. The AdBlue is in that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has drawn it in.
What to do: don't get back in and start it to clear the pump. A few jobs: a push into a space with the attendants helping, the bottle kept, and a ring to us from the forecourt. Can't move the vehicle by the petrol pump? Our explosion-proof kit keeps a live forecourt safe, so it can be drained in place.
Mowden, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
For days the dashboard had been warning you. Only at the recycling bin, the empty bottle in hand, did you glance back at the cap you'd opened on the driveway. Drives close to Chester Grove see it as much as any other street.
Put simply: if the car has not been driven since, it is almost equal to finding out at the forecourt. Being reluctant to mix, AdBlue settles to the base inside that tank and stays. One night standing alters none of that.
Next: keys in the house, and so no one takes the vehicle anywhere at breakfast. Then, phone. Hummersknott or Mowden: wherever your drive sits, that is where it gets emptied. The pumping kit works quietly enough that it won't wake the neighbours at night.
Mowden: set off with AdBlue in a diesel?
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later the motor began to run unevenly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Maybe it was on Fulthorpe Grove, perhaps on the way out towards Durham, under 25 miles away.
The upshot: the system has drawn AdBlue through already. Distance sets how far it gets: filter and pipework to begin with, then the injection pump and each injector. More miles, more restarts: deeper it goes.
Next: pick a sensible place, pull in, then switch the motor off. On the A1(M), under a mile from Mowden, that means the next exit, not the services further on. Do not restart it to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Ring us and say how far you drove.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You have just had this car for days. Your own motor either does without AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere, so no one told you the AdBlue inlet was just beside your diesel. Any driver, anywhere around Durham, could do it.
In short: one extra step on top of the situations above, which turn on if it has run. Plenty of rental and company agreements need the owner's approval for work.
Settling it before the van turn up is quicker, and so ring the hire company or your fleet manager, and then us. Hanging on for a reply at the car park at North Road, or beside rock sculpture? Keep the engine off meanwhile.
Mowden: unsure whether it was AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Truthfully, the only answer may be that you think it did. A faint ammonia smell lingers near your filler, the bottle seems too light, and which cap came off is a blur. A hurried stop by the gates of Mowden Junior School, or a call to a friend in Merrybent: both fit.
What it means: a little spilled about your filler does no harm to the motor. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. Any AdBlue in the tank would be sucked in by turning on the car, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
Your move: behave as though it got in, and don't start the motor. Tell us what you noticed on your phone. A clean tank checked counts as a happier result than a run one emptied.
Every AdBlue drain in Mowden shares these steps
Whichever scenario you are in, the job starts the same way. Three questions are asked when we arrive — at a forecourt, a driveway, a street beside St Mary or the car park at The Model T: the liquid, the quantity, and if the motor has run. On the phone, ahead of dispatch, you hear our price, and those replies shape the job too.
Draining that tank comes first, then a careful flush — more important with urea than after petrol, since crystals and corrosion will not clear on their own, no matter how long you wait. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Never started? In that case roughly half an hour on site covers most jobs.
Last, our technicians fire it up. We check it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before we leave. Our technicians do the whole job where the vehicle is, and lasting damage is very rare if it has been spotted soon. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling, and so check yours as we head over.
About Mowden
Mowden is a suburban area situated on the riverside in County Durham, with an elevation of 58 metres above sea level. Mowden lies approximately 17 miles from the city of Durham and is surrounded by nearby places such as Hummersknott, Cockerton, and Branksome. Mowden has a population of around 4004 residents, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Mowden is located in the North East region of England, about 217 miles north of London.
AdBlue drains across Durham, Mowden included
Cockerton and Branksome get the identical vans as Mowden, a residential suburb, plus other places throughout DL postcodes. Your whereabouts comes clearest from a postcode beginning DL3 9.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Bushell Hill Park or in a car park in the middle of Mowden, it doesn't need to shift. Our technicians drain the car where it is. Phone and check instead of guessing when you are close to Cockerton Methodist, near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain.
Your situation, in one line
Where it has not run, phone and keep it that way. Whichever case fits, Petrol in Diesel handles from there on 0333 366 0103, across Durham and in Mowden — after you stop, switch off and phone, if it's run.