What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Old Bricket Wood
Has the motor run since the AdBlue went in? This one point decides nearly everything about what comes next. Over in Bricket Wood or here in Old Bricket Wood, an unrun motor should stay unrun. Ring 0333 366 0103 with the key and engine still off. Across Old Bricket Wood, that is typically emptied and flushed where it stands. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. It is a larger job, yet stage one doesn't change.
Anywhere around Hertfordshire it happened, one of the situations below fits yours.
On a Old Bricket Wood forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Imagine it: standing by the petrol pump, holding the nozzle, you spot the cap you took off wasn't the right one. It might be the Sainsbury's, or the Asda, or a different station around Old Bricket Wood.
Put simply: no better spot to be to spot it. No pump has drawn it through, so the AdBlue stays only in your tank.
Next: avoid the urge to start it just to free up the pump. Three jobs: a shove into a space with the attendants assisting, the bottle kept, and a ring to us from the forecourt. The equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt, and so a vehicle that cannot be pushed away gets emptied right at the petrol pump.
AdBlue in your diesel tank at home in Old Bricket Wood
On your dash, a reminder had shown for days. Picked up a bottle, poured it in at home, binned the empty — and at that point checked the cap again, too late. Just off School Lane 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. Being reluctant to blend, AdBlue settles to the base inside that tank and stays. One night standing changes none of that.
Next: keys in the house, and so nobody drives your car off first thing. Then, ring. In Munden or right here around Old Bricket Wood, the draining is done on your driveway. The pumping kit works quiet enough not to disturb the street at night.
Set off with AdBlue in a diesel around Old Bricket Wood?
Filled up, pulled away, and before long your motor was turning roughly, smoking, losing power, or lighting up your dash. Somewhere along M1 or heading towards St Albans — under 5 miles away.
The point: the system has pulled AdBlue through by now. Mileage decides how far it goes: filter and pipework first, then the injection pump and every injector. It travels deeper with each mile driven and every restart.
What to do: pull over where it is safe to do so then switch off. Services further on can wait: from the M1, under a mile out of Old Bricket Wood, take the next junction. Restarting it to check achieves nothing — AdBlue never clears itself. Call, and say what distance the car went.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
It is a vehicle you have had for a week. Your own car either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere different, so no one told you the AdBlue inlet was right next to the diesel. It can happen to anyone, anywhere across Hertfordshire.
Put simply: one extra step on top of the cases above, which depend on if it's run. The owner frequently needs to approve any work, under plenty of hire and company agreements.
What to do: ring the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's faster settled before our engineers arrive than after. If you're stranded in the car park at Garston, or by Munden House, while you wait for an answer, leave the vehicle off.
Not sure it was AdBlue in your diesel tank, Old Bricket Wood?
Sometimes the honest answer is "I think so". Too light, that bottle; a hint of ammonia round your filler; no clear memory of the cap. Sound familiar? Possibly it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Coates Way JMI and Nursery School, or on a friend's drive in Smug Oak.
Put simply: spillage near your filler does the motor no harm. In the diesel tank, however, AdBlue damages it. You can't tell which by turning the key, and doing so will pull in any AdBlue that is in the tank.
Your move: act as if it did, and never start your engine. Inspecting a tank that turns out free of AdBlue beats draining one after it has been run — so ring then tell us what you saw.
Every AdBlue drain around Old Bricket Wood shares these steps
Whichever situation you are in, this job starts the same way. Our technicians come to your car, whether it's at a forecourt, a driveway, the car park outside The Old Fox Bricket Wood or a side street near Garston Community Church, and ask three things: what went in, about how much, and whether your motor has been run. Over the phone, ahead of anything else, you hear our quote, and those answers shape the job too.
AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to certain metals in fuel systems, so it does not wash out on its own; that's why a full flush, after the drain, counts far more here than with petrol. Next comes the filter — flushed, or swapped where necessary — followed by fresh diesel, and a test of your vehicle. Most unrun vehicles are a half-hour job from the moment we arrive.
The last step is starting the car. We check it runs correctly on fresh diesel before leaving. Our engineers do the entire job where your car is, and permanent damage is very unusual if it has been spotted early. Paying comes on the day, never upfront. For the insurer, you get a VAT invoice plus a written report from the engineer. Check your insurance while we arrive: misfuelling cover is built into plenty of policies.
About Old Bricket Wood itself
Old Bricket Wood is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 81 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type. Old Bricket Wood lies close to the city of St Albans, approximately 4.4 miles away, and is also near other places such as Munden and Garston. Old Bricket Wood is part of the wider commuter belt, being around 16.4 miles from London. Old Bricket Wood has a population of around 691 residents.
Old Bricket Wood and Hertfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Old Bricket Wood is a residential suburb, and the same teams that cover it work the towns near it too, Meriden and Garston among them, across the AL postcode area. Giving us your AL2 3 postcode pins you fastest of all.
No towing is required, whether parked in the centre of Old Bricket Wood or on a lay-by en route to Peartree Wood, so keep it where it is. Where it sits, that's where it is drained. Ring and ask rather than guess when you are close to Our Lady and St. Michael's Catholic Church, near a boundary, or anywhere tricky to explain.
The one-line version
Not run yet: keep the car off and ring. Run already: pull over, switch down, phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, within Old Bricket Wood or wherever across Hertfordshire.