Norton Green: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank comes down to one thing more than any other: if your motor has run since it got in. Over in Ford Green or here in Norton Green, an unrun motor should remain unrun. Switch nothing on, ring 0333 366 0103, and expect a thorough flush after a drain, carried out right where your vehicle stands around Norton Green. Where your engine has run, pull in somewhere safe first, then turn the vehicle off. The job is bigger, yet the first step is the same.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever in Staffordshire it happened.
At the pump in Norton Green: AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you unscrewed was the wrong one — and you only notice it while you're stood at the petrol pump, bottle or the nozzle in your hand. Maybe you're at the Shell, possibly at the Esso, possibly somewhere else around Norton Green.
Put simply: no better spot exists to discover it. Only your tank holds AdBlue; not one part beyond it has taken it in.
Do this: stay out of the car, however much the queue needs freeing. Ask the attendants to help you push your car into a parking bay, keep the receipt or the bottle, then ring us from the forecourt. Emptying it there at the pump is fine when it can't be shifted, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
Norton Green, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
For days the dash had been warning you. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the drive, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look once more at the cap. It takes place on driveways just off Chatsworth Drive as regularly as anywhere.
Put simply: if your vehicle has not been driven since, it's almost as good as finding out at the pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of the tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so nobody moves the vehicle in the morning. Then ring. Cornhill or Norton Green: wherever your drive is, that's where it gets emptied. Even at night, our pumps stay quiet enough for a residential street.
On the road around Norton Green with AdBlue in a diesel
A short way after filling up, the engine started misbehaving: roughness, smoke, less power, warnings on your dash. Duke Bank Terrace, perhaps, or the route to Stoke-on-Trent — a run of under 5 miles.
Meaning? The pump has sucked the AdBlue in. It has been through the fuel filter and the lines and, the further you went, into your high-pressure pump and the injectors. More miles, more starts: further it travels.
Stop somewhere safe — that's the first step — then switch everything off. Norton Green lies under 10 miles from the M6; there, pull off at the next junction instead of pushing on for the services. Do not restart the vehicle to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Phone, and say how far the car went.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
You've only had this car a week. The AdBlue filler is right next to the diesel filler, which you didn't know, because your own motor either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Anywhere you happen to be around Staffordshire, every motorist can be caught.
Meaning? Whichever applies above counts too — run or unrun — and one extra stage. The owner often needs to sign off any work, under many rental and company agreements.
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. Stranded near Zion Methodist Church or at Longport till someone answers, the vehicle stays turned off the whole time.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Norton Green?
Occasionally the honest answer is "I think so". Too light, that bottle; a hint of ammonia near your filler; no clear recollection of the cap. Look familiar? Maybe on a friend's driveway in Bradeley, or rushing by St Marys Catholic Academy at the school run.
What it means: a little spilled round the filler does no harm to your engine. Once it's inside your diesel tank, though, that changes. If there is AdBlue in that tank, starting your car would pull it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
What to do: treat it as if it went in. Don't fire it up. Ring us and describe what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out clean than drain one that has already been run.
Norton Green: what each AdBlue drain has in common
The work opens the same way, whichever the situation. Anywhere the car is — The Foaming Quart's car park, a road beside Mine Cart Structure, a driveway, a filling station — the van arrives and asks for the liquid, the amount, and if your engine has turned over. Those replies decide this work, and you get the quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is emptied and your system rinsed thoroughly, which matters 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. Next comes the fuel filter — cleaned, or replaced where needed — then clean diesel, and a test of your car. Most unstarted vehicles are a half-hour job after the moment our technicians turn up.
We fire it up at the end. Before our technicians go, it is checked to be sure it runs properly on new diesel. Our technicians do the whole job where your car is, and lasting damage is very uncommon if it has been caught soon. Paying comes on the day, never in advance. For the insurer, you get a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Norton Green, briefly
Norton Green is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, situated near the River Trent. Norton Green sits at an elevation of 169 metres, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Norton Green is close to nearby places such as Cornhill and Ball Green, and is approximately 3 miles from Stoke-on-Trent city centre. Norton Green has a population of around 3325 residents.
Norton Green and Staffordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Norton Green is a residential suburb, and the same vans that cover it work the places near it too, Ball Green and Norton-in-the-Moors among them, across the ST postcode area. Fastest of all: a ST6 8 postcode to show where you stand.
Stopped heading to the green space at the edge of the village, or right in the heart of Norton Green, your vehicle remains put — there is no need to shift it anywhere. The drain happens right there. If you're somewhere hard to describe, near St Bartholomew's, Norton le Moors or close to a border, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Your scenario, in one line
Not run yet: keep it off then ring. Run by now? Stop, switch off, ring. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder whichever case, across Norton Green and Staffordshire, on 0333 366 0103.