Pickford: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: if the motor has been run since it got in. Anywhere your vehicle is — Millisons Wood, Pickford — never start an engine that has not been started yet. Keep nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, then count on a thorough flush plus a drain, carried out right where your vehicle sits in Pickford. Stop the moment it is safe then turn off, if it has already run. It is a bigger job, yet step one doesn't change.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever in West Midlands it happened.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Pickford forecourt
Only at this point, bottle still in your hand, it dawns on you that the cap you took off was the wrong one, there at the petrol pump. Whether Esso, Gulf or somewhere else in Pickford, the situation is identical.
In short: there is no better place exists to spot it. Nothing has drawn it through, so the AdBlue stays just in the tank.
Next: resist the temptation to fire it up just to move away from the pump. Have the attendants to lend a hand rolling it into a bay, hold on to the receipt, then ring us from there. Emptying it there at the pump is fine when it cannot be shifted, since the equipment is explosion-proof.
At home in Pickford with AdBlue in the diesel tank
For days the dashboard had been warning you. A bottle from the garage, emptied in on the driveway — and it was only at the bin that the cap got your eye. Just off Birmingham Road is no less likely from anywhere.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. As it is unable to mix, AdBlue drops to the base in that tank and stays. One night standing alters nothing.
Keep the keys in the house tonight — or someone might drive it away at breakfast — and call us. Pinketts Booth or Pickford: wherever your driveway sits, that's where it gets drained. Even at night, our pumps are quiet enough for a driveway.
Pickford: drove off with AdBlue in a diesel?
A short way after filling up, the engine started playing up: roughness, smoke, less power, lights on your dash. Pickford Green Lane, say, or the way towards Coventry — a trip of under 5 miles.
The point: the system has drawn AdBlue in already. Through your filter, through the pipework, and — the further the mileage — on into the high-pressure pump and every injector. It goes deeper with each mile covered and each restart.
Next: find a sensible place, pull in, and turn the engine off. On the M6, under 3 miles from Pickford, that means the next junction, not the services further on. Do not restart it to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Phone us and say how far you drove.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
A week back, the car was unknown to you. Unbeknown to you, the two inlets are next to each other here — unlike your own vehicle, which has no AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere. Any driver, anywhere around West Midlands, might do the same.
Meaning? Whichever applies above counts too — run or unrun — plus one further stage. Plenty of hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on the vehicle.
Next: ring the hire company or your fleet manager first, and then us — sorting it before we arrive is quicker. Hanging on for a reply in the car park at Tile Hill, or near Site of Triumph Motorcycles Factory? Keep your engine off meanwhile.
Not sure it was AdBlue in your diesel tank, Pickford?
Now and then, "I think so" is all anyone can truthfully say. Too light, that bottle; a hint of ammonia near the filler; a hazy recollection of the cap. Sound familiar? It might have been on a friend's drive in Allesley, or rushing by Allesley Primary School at the school run.
Meaning? Drips around the inlet don't reach the motor at all. Once it's inside the diesel tank, though, it does. You cannot tell which by turning the ignition, and doing so would pull in any AdBlue that is in the tank.
Take it that it went in, and don't start the key. Describe what you saw on your phone. A clear tank looked at counts as a better result than an already-run one emptied.
The common ground in every Pickford AdBlue drain
The job begins identically, whichever your situation. Three questions are asked when we reach your car — at a filling station, a driveway, a street by Eastern Green Village Hall or the car park outside the pub in the village: the fluid, the quantity, and if it has been started. On the phone, before dispatch, you are told our quote, and those answers decide the work too.
AdBlue forms crystals and is corrosive to certain metals in fuel systems, so it won't wash out on its own; that's why a full flush, after the drain, counts much more here than with petrol. Next is the filter — cleaned, or replaced where needed — then clean diesel, and a test of the car. Where your engine has not run, expect roughly half an hour once we arrive, in most jobs.
The final step is starting the car. Before we go, it is checked to make sure it runs correctly on clean diesel. The entire job is done where the car is, and if it's noticed quickly, permanent damage is very unusual. For your insurer: an engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment on the day, nothing in advance. Plenty of policies cover misfuelling, and so look at yours as we head over.
About Pickford
Pickford is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in the West Midlands, with an elevation of around 118 metres. Pickford lies close to the city of Coventry, approximately 3.9 miles away, and is near other local places such as Pinketts Booth and Pickford Green. Pickford has a population of around 605 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Pickford is located about 89.2 miles northwest of London.
AdBlue drains about Pickford and across West Midlands
Throughout CV postcodes, the teams serving Pickford — a rural hamlet — reach nearby towns as well, Pickford Green and Harvest Hill among them. A postcode starting CV5 9 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
No moving is required, be it stopped in the centre of Pickford or on a lay-by heading to Harvest Hill Daffodil Meadow, and so keep it put. Our van empties it where it stands. Awkward to explain? Close to St Andrews or a border? Asking beats guessing, and so ring.
Your scenario, summed up
Still unrun? Keep the vehicle off and ring. Run already: pull over, power down, phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest, within Pickford or wherever in West Midlands.