AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Pengersick, and What to Do Next
Everything turns on one fact: if your engine has started since the AdBlue was added — more than anything else. Not run so far? Then leave it like that, whether the car sits — Pengersick or Newtown. Leave the motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103; it's usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Pengersick. Where your motor has run, pull in somewhere safe straight away, then turn it off. It is a bigger job, yet step one does not change.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever around Cornwall it happened.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Pengersick forecourt
Only now, nozzle still in hand, you realise that the cap you took off was the wrong one, there at the pump. Perhaps you are at the JET, possibly at the Pace, perhaps somewhere else around Pengersick.
The point: of all places to find out, the forecourt is the best. The AdBlue is inside that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has sucked it in.
What to do: do not get back in and start the vehicle to clear the petrol pump. Ask the attendants to help you push your car into a parking space, keep the receipt or the bottle, then call us from the forecourt. Can't move the vehicle beside the petrol pump? Explosion-proof kit makes a busy forecourt safe, and so we can drain the car where it is.
Pengersick, at home: AdBlue in the diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. Only by the recycling, the empty bottle in your hand, did you look back at the cap you'd used at the drive. Right off Pengersick Parc is no different from any other place.
The point: no miles since leaves it almost as good to finding it at the petrol pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of that tank and waits there. Overnight doesn't change that.
Next: stop any early move by putting the keys indoors, then phone us. Your drive is where it is drained, whether around Pengersick or Praa Sands. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving around Pengersick?
Topped up, drove away, and soon your engine was turning roughly, smoking, down on power, or lighting up the dash. It might have been heading to Truro, under 25 miles away, or just down Castle Court.
The upshot: your system has pulled AdBlue through by now. Past your filter, along the lines, and — the more the distance — on into the injection pump and every injector. More driving, more restarts: deeper it travels.
Your move: pull up anywhere safe, then switch the motor off. Pengersick lies over 50 miles from the M5; on it, come off at the next junction instead of pressing on for the services. No test restarts: clearing is not something AdBlue does. Tell us hear the mileage covered as you call.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
You've had the car hardly a week. On your own vehicle, AdBlue is absent or somewhere else. On this one, the cap is right by your diesel cap — news to you. It can happen to anyone, anywhere across Cornwall.
What it means: the same as the situations above, depending on whether it's run, with one more stage. The owner frequently has to sign off any work, under plenty of rental and company agreements.
Next: phone the hire company or the fleet manager first, then us — sorting it before we arrive is quicker. Stuck by Pengersick Castle or outside St Erth till the firm replies, your vehicle stays switched off throughout.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Pengersick?
"I think so" is often the most honest as it gets. A slight ammonia-like whiff hangs near your filler, the bottle seems too light, and which cap came off is a blur. A hurried top-up by the gates of Germoe Community Primary School, or a visit to a friend in Tresowes Green: both fits.
What it means: a little spilled round your filler does no harm to the motor. Inside your diesel tank, however, AdBlue harms it. Firing up the car won't tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in that tank it will pull it in.
What to do: treat it as if it got in. Don't start it. 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.
Pengersick: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Whichever situation you are in, the job starts the same way. Anywhere your car is — The SandBar's car park, a street beside RAAF Sunderland Flying Boat, a drive, a filling station — our van gets there and we ask about the fluid, the amount, plus if the motor has been run. Those answers determine this work, and you get the price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is emptied and your system cleaned thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel is put in after the filter is cleaned or changed, and the car is finally checked. If your motor has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
Our engineers fire it up last. Before our technicians go, it's tested to be sure it runs smoothly on fresh diesel. If it's noticed early, the car very seldom has lasting damage, and the whole job takes place where it is. Nothing is taken upfront, settlement happens on the day, and you receive what your insurer asks for: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Pengersick, for a moment
Pengersick is a small coastal hamlet in Cornwall, situated near Praa Sands and Germoe, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Pengersick sits at an elevation of 46 metres, overlooking the coastline of western Cornwall. Pengersick is located approximately 18 miles from Truro, the nearest city, and is part of a wider area that includes nearby Hendra. Pengersick has a population of around 518 people, living in a scenic coastal setting.
AdBlue drains in Pengersick, and across Cornwall too
Being a rural hamlet, Pengersick shares its vans with the nearby places — Hendra, Germoe — right across TR postcodes. Telling us a TR20 9 postcode finds you quickest of all.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Praa Sands Golf Course or in a car park in the middle of Pengersick, it does not need to move. Our van drains it where it stands. If you are somewhere hard to describe, near St Germoe or close to a boundary, ring and ask rather than guessing.
Your scenario, in one line
Motor never started: ring, and leave it alone. Started already? Stop, switch off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder whatever case, across Pengersick and Cornwall, on 0333 366 0103.