AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in North End: What Now?
Everything hinges on one detail: if the motor has been run after the AdBlue went in — more than anything else. Anywhere your vehicle is — Durham, North End — don't start a motor that hasn't been started yet. Leave your motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103; it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in North End. Where your engine has been run, pull in safely straight away, then turn the vehicle off. It is a larger job, though stage one doesn't change.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever across Durham it happened.
North End forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
Imagine it: stood by the petrol pump, gripping the bottle, you spot the cap you opened was not the right one. Whether Esso, Shell or anywhere else around North End, the situation is the same.
What it means: this is the best place to find out. The AdBlue is in that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has drawn it in.
Do this: stay out of the driver's seat, even if the pump wants freeing. Phone us from the forecourt after your car sits in a space — the staff will lend a hand to push it — then keep the bottle. Our equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt, so a car that cannot be pushed clear gets cleared right at the petrol pump.
AdBlue in the diesel tank on a North End drive?
Several days had gone by with the warning light on. A bottle bought at the garage, tipped in on the driveway — and it was just at the bin that the cap got a second look. Just off North End is not less likely from any other place.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of that tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
Put the keys in the house tonight — otherwise a person may drive it off at breakfast — then phone us. Our technicians drain the vehicle on your driveway, whether that's around North End or out in Aykley Heads. Night-time empties outside a house are no problem: the pumps are quiet.
On the road in North End with AdBlue in a diesel
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power or a lit dashboard arrived a mile or two beyond the top-up. It might have been driving for Durham, under a mile away, or just down Southfield Way.
The point: the system has pulled AdBlue through by now. Distance sets how far it goes: filter and lines to begin with, then the high-pressure pump and every injector. More driving, more restarts: deeper it travels.
Stop safely — that is the first step — then turn everything off. Service stations farther on are too far: from the A1(M), under 3 miles out of North End, use the first junction. Don't restart it to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Call, and say how far your vehicle was driven.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company cars
You have had the vehicle hardly a week. The AdBlue filler is right alongside the diesel filler, which you did not know, since your own motor either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Wherever you happen to be around Durham, every motorist can be caught.
In short: an extra stage on top of the situations above, and those turn on if it has run. Many hire and company contracts want the owner to approve work on the car.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's faster settled before our engineers get there than after. If you're stranded in the car park at Durham, or by Durham Martyrs' Memorial, whilst you wait for an answer, leave your car off.
North End: unsure whether it was AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Honestly, the best answer may be that you think it did. A faint ammonia-like smell hangs around your filler, the bottle seems too light, and the cap you took off is a blur. Maybe at a friend's driveway in Framwellgate Moor, or in a rush by Framwellgate Moor Primary School at the school run.
Meaning? Drips around the filler never touch the engine at all. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. Firing up your car cannot tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in that tank it would draw it in.
Your move: act as though it did, and never start the engine. Describe what you saw on the phone. A clear tank checked is a happier result than a run one emptied.
North End: what each AdBlue drain has in common
The job begins identically, whichever your case. Three questions come once our engineers reach the car — at a filling station, a driveway, a street by 50 years of landscape architecture or the car park outside The Cartologist: the liquid, the quantity, and whether the motor has run. The price is given on the call, ahead of anyone setting off, and those replies shape the job.
A thorough flush comes after the drain. With petrol it is standard; with AdBlue it's essential, since deposits form and some metals are attacked, and neither washes out unaided. Next comes the fuel filter — cleaned, or replaced where needed — then fresh diesel, and a test of your car. Not started? In that case about half an hour on site covers most jobs.
Firing it up comes last. We check it runs properly on fresh diesel before leaving. If it is caught quickly, the car very seldom has permanent damage, and the entire job happens where it is. Nothing is paid upfront, payment is made on the day, and you get what your insurer wants: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. Check your insurance before we arrive: cover for misfuelling is built into plenty of policies.
About North End, briefly
North End is a suburban area located near the city of Durham, sitting at an elevation of 86 metres in the inland countryside of County Durham. North End is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is situated close to nearby places such as Aykley Heads and Western Hill. North End remains a residential community on the edge of Durham, with the city centre just 0.5 miles away.
North End and Durham: AdBlue drains across the area
North End is a residential suburb, and the same teams that cover it work the places around it too, Western Hill and Whitesmocks among them, across the DH postcode area. Fastest of all: a DH1 4 postcode for your location.
No moving is required, whether stopped centrally in North End or on a lay-by heading to Aykley Heads Woodland, so keep it put. Our van drains it where it stands. Guessing doesn't help near County Hall, on a county line or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
Your scenario, in one line
If it hasn't started, ring then leave it that way. Started already? Stop, turn off, phone. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whatever case, in North End and Durham, on 0333 366 0103.