Old Hill: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
All of it hinges on one detail: whether the motor has been run after the AdBlue went in — far more than anything else. Not started so far? Then leave the car like that, whether your car is — Old Hill or Brickhouse Farm. Leave the motor and your ignition off and call 0333 366 0103; it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Old Hill. Pull over the moment you safely can then turn off, if it has already run. A larger job, yes, but the same opening move.
Wherever in West Midlands it happened, one of the situations below matches yours.
On a Old Hill forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you opened was the wrong one — and you only spot it while you're stood at the pump, bottle or nozzle in hand. Possibly you're at the Esso, possibly at the Tesco, perhaps somewhere else in Old Hill.
The upshot: of every spot to notice, this is the best. No pump has pulled it in, and so the AdBlue sits only inside the tank.
Next: resist the urge to start it only to free up the pump. A few things: a shove into a bay with the staff assisting, the bottle saved, and a call to us from where you stand. The equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a live forecourt, and so a car that cannot be pushed away gets cleared where it is at the pump.
AdBlue in the diesel tank on a Old Hill drive?
On the dash, a warning had shown all week. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the drive, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look again at the cap. Homes just off Mace Street are caught out as often as anywhere else.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. Diesel and AdBlue stay apart: the AdBlue settles to the base of that tank and remains put, however long it waits.
Keep the keys indoors tonight — otherwise a person might take it off at breakfast — then call us. In Bowling Green or here in Old Hill, the draining happens on your driveway. Our equipment works quiet enough that it won't wake the street at night.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving in Old Hill?
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard started a mile or two beyond the top-up. Possibly it was on Court Street, perhaps on the way out towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away.
Meaning? Your fuel pump has taken the AdBlue up. It has been through the filter and the lines and, the further you went, into your high-pressure pump and the injectors. It travels deeper with each extra mile driven and every restart.
Stop safely — that's the next step — then turn everything off. On the M5, under 3 miles from Old Hill, that means the next junction, not the services further on. No trial starts: clearing itself is not something AdBlue does. Phone, and say what distance the car was driven.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You have had this car barely a week. Your own car either does without AdBlue or keeps it somewhere different, so no one told you the AdBlue inlet was just beside your diesel. It can happen to anyone, anywhere across West Midlands.
What it means: the same as the scenarios above, depending on whether it has run, with one more step. Plenty of rental and company agreements require the owner's sign-off for work.
Next: phone the rental company or your fleet manager first, and then us — settling it before we arrive is faster. Stranded near Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses or outside the nearest station until the firm answers, the car remains turned off the whole time.
Unsure about AdBlue in the diesel tank around Old Hill?
At times the honest answer is "I think so". What cap came off, you can't recall; but the bottle weighs less than expected, and a whiff of ammonia hangs by your filler. Maybe at a friend's drive in Dudley Wood, or rushing by Old Hill Primary School on the school run.
The upshot: the motor is not hurt by a little AdBlue spilled on the outside. The diesel tank with AdBlue inside is a different story. If there is AdBlue in that tank, starting your car would draw it in, and it would not tell you which either.
Do this: behave as though it got in, and never start the motor. Phone and give what you saw: we would sooner confirm a clean tank than drain one once your motor has been run.
Old Hill: what every AdBlue drain has in common
Whichever situation you are in, the job starts the same way. Wherever the car is — The Spring Meadow's car park, a street beside Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, a drive, a filling station — our van gets there and asks about the liquid, the quantity, and whether your engine has turned over. Those replies decide the work, and you hear our price by phone, before anybody sets off.
AdBlue crystallises and eats at certain metals used in fuel systems, so it does not rinse out unaided; that is why a full flush, after the drain, counts far more with AdBlue than with petrol. Then comes the fuel filter — cleaned, or swapped where necessary — followed by fresh diesel, and a test of the car. Never started? Then roughly half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
Firing it up comes last. Before our technicians go, it is tested to make sure it runs smoothly on new diesel. If it is caught quickly, the car very seldom has lasting damage, and the whole job takes place where it is. Payment comes that day, never in advance. For your insurer, there is a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling, and so look at yours while the van travels.
About Old Hill itself
Old Hill is a village situated on the riverside in the West Midlands, with an elevation of around 115 metres. Old Hill lies approximately 6.9 miles west of Birmingham and is surrounded by nearby places such as Bowling Green, Cradley Heath, and Darby End. Old Hill has a population of around 5886 people and is predominantly composed of terraced housing. Old Hill is located about 106.2 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains around Old Hill, and across West Midlands too
Old Hill is a village, and the same teams that cover it work the towns near it too, Cradley Heath and Darby End among them, across the B postcode area. Quickest of all: a B64 6 postcode to show where you stand.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Black Country Millennium Forest or in a car park in the middle of Old Hill, it doesn't need to move. Wherever it stands, that's where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help beside Holy Trinity Church Old Hill, on a county line or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
Your scenario, in one line
Not run yet: keep the vehicle off then call. Run by now? Pull over, switch off, phone. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whichever case, in Old Hill and West Midlands, on 0333 366 0103.