AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Pinnacles: What Now?
One fact counts above all when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is whether the engine has been started since. Out in The High or here in Pinnacles, an unrun motor must stay unrun. Leave your motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103; it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Pinnacles. Pull over the minute it is safe and switch off, if it has been run. A bigger job, then, yet the same opening step.
Wherever in Essex it happened, one of the situations below matches yours.
On a Pinnacles forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
The cap you unscrewed was the wrong one — and you only spot it as you're standing at the petrol pump, bottle or the nozzle in hand. Perhaps you're at the Texaco, possibly at the Esso, perhaps somewhere else in Pinnacles.
Put simply: there is no better place to be to spot it. Still inside the tank, with no fuel pulled onwards: that is where the AdBlue sits.
Clearing the petrol pump is no reason to start it — so do not get back in. Phone us from the forecourt once the vehicle sits in a space — the staff will help roll it — then save the bottle. Emptying it there at the petrol pump is possible when it can't be shifted, since the equipment is explosion-proof.
Pinnacles, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the driveway, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look again at the cap. Homes just off Coldharbour Road get caught out as often as everywhere else.
What it means: if you haven't driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. At the bottom of your tank sits where AdBlue stays, since it won't mix with diesel — and a night passing changes nothing of the difference.
Next: the keys indoors, and so nobody takes your vehicle anywhere at breakfast. Then, phone. Out in Hare Street or right here in Pinnacles, the draining is done at your drive. Night-time empties outside a house are fine: the pumps are low-noise.
Drove off with AdBlue in a diesel around Pinnacles?
Rough running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard arrived a mile or two after the fill. It might have been heading to Chelmsford, under 25 miles away, or simply down Fourth Avenue.
Put simply: the AdBlue has been sucked through the fuel system. Through the filter, through the pipework, and — the more the distance — deeper into the injection pump and each injector. Each restart, like each mile, carries it on.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so and switch off. On the M11, under 5 miles from Pinnacles, that means the next exit, not the services further on. No trial restarts: clearing is not something AdBlue does. Tell us know the distance driven as you ring.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
Seven days ago, it was unknown to you. Unbeknown to you, the AdBlue and diesel inlets sit side by side here — unlike your own vehicle, which has none or keeps it elsewhere. Across Essex, no one is safe from it.
In short: one extra stage on top of the situations above, and those turn on whether it's run. The owner often needs to sign off any work, under many hire and fleet agreements.
Sorting it before we arrives is faster, and so ring the hire company or your fleet manager, and then us. Stuck by Runaway Rotavator or at Harlow Town until the firm answers, the vehicle remains switched off throughout.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Pinnacles?
"I think so" is sometimes as honest as it gets. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia round your filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. The gates of Hare Street Community Primary School and Nursery in a rush, say, or a friend's driveway over in Great Parndon.
The upshot: your engine isn't harmed by a little AdBlue splashed on the outside. Inside the diesel tank, by contrast, AdBlue harms it. Turning on the car will not tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in that tank it would pull it in.
Next: assume it went in, and keep the motor off. Call us and explain what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out clean than drain one that has already been run.
What every AdBlue drain around Pinnacles has in common
The job begins identically, whatever the case. Filling station, drive, The Golden Swift's car park or a road beside Harlow Arena — our van comes to your car, and three questions come next: which fluid, what quantity, and if it ran. Answers shape the job; the quote follows by phone while no one has left yet.
Emptying your tank comes first, followed by a careful flush — more vital after urea than after petrol, because crystals and corrosion won't clear on their own, however long it sits. Clean diesel is put in after the fuel filter has been flushed or replaced, and the car is then tested. Most unstarted vehicles are a half-hour job from the moment our technicians arrive.
Starting the car comes last. Our test that it runs smoothly on fresh diesel comes before we leave. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, and if it is noticed quickly, lasting damage is very uncommon. Nothing is taken upfront, payment happens on the day, and you get what the insurer asks for: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. Worth knowing: many insurers include misfuelling cover, and so a check of your documents as we travel pays.
About Pinnacles
Pinnacles is a suburban area in Essex, situated on the riverside with an elevation of 62 metres, and is located near Hare Street, Eastend, and Little Parndon. Pinnacles has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced homes. Pinnacles is close to the city of Chelmsford, which is 17.3 miles away, and is also within commuting distance of London, at 19.9 miles away. Pinnacles has a population of approximately 2175 residents.
AdBlue drains round Pinnacles and across Essex
Over CM postcodes, the teams covering Pinnacles — a residential suburb — work nearby places too, Eastend and Little Parndon among them. Quickest of all: a CM19 5 postcode to show where you stand.
Whether the car is on a lay-by on the way to Jean McAlpine Park or in a car park in the middle of Pinnacles, it doesn't need to move. The van drains it in place. Guessing won't help beside Harlow Greyhound Stadium, on a border or anywhere hard to pin down; phone and check.
Your scenario, in one line
Not run yet: keep it off and ring. Run already: stop, switch down, ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, in Pinnacles or anywhere in Essex.