AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Ostend, and What to Do Next
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: whether your motor has been run since it went in. Anywhere your car stands — Southminster, Ostend — don't run a motor that has not run yet. Call 0333 366 0103 with the key and engine both off. Across Ostend, that is typically emptied and flushed where it stands. Already started? Stop when you safely can, then turn it off. Stage one remains unchanged, even though the work grows.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever across Essex it happened.
On a Ostend forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Only at this point, bottle yet in hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, right at the petrol pump. Somewhere in Ostend, then — Woodfords Garage, Texaco, or somewhere else nearby.
Put simply: no better spot to be to spot it. Only the tank holds AdBlue; no component beyond it has taken it in.
Clearing the pump is no excuse to start it — and so do not get back in. Phone us from the forecourt once the vehicle sits in a space — the attendants will help push it — and keep the receipt. If it can't be moved, it can be drained at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a busy forecourt.
At home in Ostend with AdBlue in the diesel tank
Several days had passed with the dash light on. 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. Houses just off Creeksea Lane get hit as much as anywhere else.
The upshot: no driving since makes it almost as good to spotting it at the petrol pump. On the floor of that tank is exactly where AdBlue stays, because it will not blend with diesel — and a night going by makes no difference.
Keep the keys in the house tonight — or a person may drive it off at breakfast — and phone us. Out in Creeksea or here around Ostend, the drain happens at your drive. Even at night, our pumps stay quiet enough for a driveway.
On the road in Ostend with AdBlue in a diesel
Rough running, smoke, lost power or a lit dashboard started a short way after the top-up. Maybe it was on Endeavour Way, maybe on the way out towards Southend-on-Sea, under 10 miles away.
What it means: the fuel system has drawn the AdBlue in. The injection pump and every injector see it as well on a longer run, once your filter and pipework have it. Each restart, like every mile, pushes it deeper.
What to do: pull over where it is safe to do so then switch off. Exit at the first junction — not the services beyond — if you're on the M2, under 25 miles from Ostend. It will not have cleared, so there's no sense starting it again to find out. Ring us and say how far you went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
A week back, it was new to you. The AdBlue filler is right next to the diesel one, which you did not know, because your own motor either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Anywhere you are in Essex, every motorist could be caught.
What it means: the same as the scenarios above, depending on whether it's run, with one more stage. The owner often has to approve the work, under plenty of hire and fleet contracts.
Sorting it before we arrives is faster, so phone the hire company or your fleet manager, and then us. Stranded by Ramblers FC or at Burnham-On-Crouch till someone replies, your vehicle stays switched off the whole time.
Ostend: unsure whether it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
"I think so" is sometimes the most honest as it gets. Which cap came off, you cannot recall; but the bottle weighs lighter than expected, and a whiff of ammonia lingers by your filler. Maybe at a friend's drive in Northend, or in a rush outside St Mary's Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, Burnham-on-Crouch at the school run.
Meaning? Spills outside the inlet don't reach the motor at all. Once it is inside the diesel tank, though, it does. Any AdBlue in that tank will be drawn in by starting the vehicle, and the start would not settle which it is in any case.
Assume it got in, and don't start the key. Call us and explain what you saw; we would rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
The common ground in each Ostend AdBlue drain
Each case gets the same start to the work. Three questions come when our engineers reach the car — on a filling station, a drive, a road beside All Saints, Creeksea or the car park outside New Welcome Sailor: the liquid, the amount, and if the motor has been started. On the phone, ahead of dispatch, you are told our price, and those replies shape the job too.
AdBlue forms crystals and is corrosive to some metals used in fuel systems, so it does not wash out on its own; that is why a full flush, after the drain, matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Where your motor hasn't run, allow roughly half an hour on site, for most cases.
Our engineers start the car at the end. Before our engineers head off, it's checked to be sure it runs smoothly on new diesel. We do the whole job where the car is, and lasting damage is very unusual when it has been noticed early. Nothing is paid upfront, settlement happens on the day, and you receive what your insurer asks for: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. Worth knowing: lots of insurers include misfuelling cover, and so a quick look at your policy as we travel pays.
About Ostend
Ostend is a small village in Essex, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 27 metres, and is located near the town of Burnham-on-Crouch. Ostend has a population of around 744 people and is characterized by predominantly detached housing. Ostend is close to other nearby places such as Creeksea and Stoneyhills, and is within a short distance of Southend-on-Sea. Ostend is also within commuting distance of London, being approximately 40.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains around Ostend, and across Essex too
Over CM postcodes, the vans serving Ostend — a village — reach surrounding places too, Stoneyhills and Burnham-on-Crouch among them. Quickest of all: a CM0 8 postcode to show your location.
Whether the vehicle is on a lay-by on the way to Ramblers FC or in a car park in the middle of Ostend, it does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is. Guessing won't help near Mangapp's Farm, on a border or somewhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
In one line: your situation
Not run yet: keep the vehicle off then call. Run by now: pull over, power down, phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, in Ostend or anywhere in Essex.