AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Penzance: What Now?
All of it turns on one fact: if your motor has been run after the AdBlue went in — far more than anything else. Not run yet? Then keep the car that way, wherever your vehicle sits — Penzance or Heamoor. Keep nothing on, call 0333 366 0103, and count on a thorough flush plus a drain, done right where your vehicle stands around Penzance. Already started? Pull over when you safely can, then turn everything off. It is a bigger job, though stage one doesn't change.
Further down: the situations we meet, anywhere around Cornwall. Pick the one that fits.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Penzance forecourt
Just now, bottle yet in your hand, it dawns on you that the cap you took off was the wrong one, there at the petrol pump. Be it Texaco, Tesco or somewhere else in Penzance, the case is identical.
The point: of all places to find out, this is the best. The AdBlue is in your tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
Clearing the petrol pump is no reason to run it — and so do not get back in. Ask the attendants to help you push the vehicle into a parking spot, keep your receipt or the bottle, then phone us from the forecourt. If it can't be shifted, it can be drained at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a working forecourt.
Penzance, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
On your dash, a reminder had shown for days. Only by the recycling, the empty bottle in hand, did you look back at the cap you had opened on the driveway. It takes place on driveways just off Alverton Street as regularly as anywhere.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. Being unable to mix, AdBlue drops low inside that tank and stays. One night standing alters nothing.
Keep the keys indoors tonight — otherwise someone may drive it off first thing — and call us. Wherry Town or Penzance: whichever your drive is, that's where it gets emptied. Late-night clears outside a house are no problem: the pumps are low-noise.
On the road around Penzance with AdBlue in a diesel
Filled up, drove away, and before long the engine was turning unevenly, blowing smoke, losing power, or flashing up the dash. It might have been driving for Truro, under 25 miles away, or just along Morrab Road.
What it means: your fuel system has drawn the AdBlue in. The injection pump and each injector see it as well on a bigger run, after your filter and lines have had it. More driving, more starts: deeper it travels.
Your move: pull up somewhere sensible, then turn your engine off. Leave by the next junction — not the services beyond — if you are on the M5, over 50 miles from Penzance. It won't have cleared, and so there's no sense starting it again to check. Phone, and say what distance your vehicle was driven.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
A week back, the car was unknown to you. The AdBlue filler is right next to the diesel filler, which you did not know, since your own car either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Anywhere you happen to be in Cornwall, every driver can be caught.
In short: an extra step on top of the situations above, and those depend on if it's run. Work on your vehicle frequently needs the owner's go-ahead under rental or fleet terms.
What to do: ring the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's quicker settled before we get there than after. If you're stuck in the car park outside the nearest station, or by Penzance Public Library, while you wait for an answer, leave the car off.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Penzance?
Honestly, the only answer might be that you think it did. What cap was taken off, you can't say; meanwhile the bottle weighs lighter than it ought to, and a whiff of ammonia lingers by the filler. Maybe it happened in a hurry at the school gates at St Mary's CofE Primary School, Penzance, or on a friend's drive in Trythogga.
Put simply: spillage round the filler does your motor no harm. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. Any AdBlue in that tank will be sucked in by firing up the vehicle, and the start would not settle which it is in any case.
Take it that it went in, and don't turn your engine. Checking a tank that turns out clean is better than draining one once it's been run — so ring and describe to us what you saw.
Penzance: what every AdBlue drain has in common
Each case has the same opening to the job. Anywhere your car is — Sir Humphry Davy Inn's car park, a road beside Penzance Town Hall, a driveway, a forecourt — our van arrives and we ask about the liquid, the quantity, plus whether the engine has turned over. Over the phone, before dispatch, you are told our quote, and those answers shape the job too.
Then the tank is cleared and your system purged 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. Then is the fuel filter — cleaned, or swapped when necessary — then clean diesel, and a test of your car. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there.
Starting the car comes at the end. With clean diesel in, it runs while our engineers confirm it's running correctly, and then we leave. The entire job is done where the car is, and if it is noticed quickly, permanent damage is very rare. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth knowing: lots of insurers include misfuelling cover, so a quick look at your documents as you wait is worthwhile.
About Penzance
Penzance is a coastal town in Cornwall, situated on the shores of Mounts Bay at an elevation of around 31 metres. Penzance has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Penzance is located near several smaller communities, including Wherry Town, Alverton, and Treneere, and is approximately 23.8 miles from the city of Truro. Penzance is a significant urban centre in western Cornwall, with a population of around 14923 people.
Penzance and Cornwall: AdBlue drains across the area
Over TR postcodes, the vans serving Penzance — a coastal town — reach nearby places as well, Alverton and Treneere among them. Telling us your TR18 2 postcode pins you quickest of all.
No towing is needed, whether parked centrally in Penzance or on a layby en route to Memorial Garden, so keep it where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is. Assuming doesn't help beside The Acorn, on a border or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and ask.
Your situation, summed up
Unstarted? Leave the car off and ring. Whichever line applies, Petrol in Diesel takes over from there on 0333 366 0103, throughout Cornwall and within Penzance — after you stop, switch off and phone, if it has run.