AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Rufford, and What to Do Next
Everything hinges on a single detail: if the motor has been run after the AdBlue was added — more than anything else. Wherever your vehicle is — Tarlscough, Rufford — never start an engine that hasn't been started yet. Keep nothing on, ring 0333 366 0103, and count on a proper flush after a drain, carried out just where your vehicle stands around Rufford. Stop the moment you safely can and switch off, if it has been run. It is a larger job, yet step one does not change.
Find the situation below that matches yours, wherever around Lancashire it happened.
On a Rufford forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
You are at the pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. It might be the R. Sephton & Son, or the another forecourt nearby, or another forecourt in Rufford.
Meaning? Finding out here is the best it can be. Just the tank has AdBlue; no part past it has taken any in.
Freeing the petrol pump is no excuse to run it — so don't get back in. Ask the staff to help you push the car into a parking bay, keep your receipt or the bottle, then call us from the forecourt. Can't move the car beside the petrol pump? Our explosion-proof kit keeps a live forecourt safe, and so it can be drained in place.
Rufford, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. A bottle bought at the garage, tipped in on the drive — and it's only at the recycling that the cap caught your eye. Driveways near Liverpool Road see it as much as any other street.
Put simply: if the car has not moved since, it is almost as good as spotting it at the forecourt. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of the tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
Put the keys in the house tonight — otherwise a person may drive it away at breakfast — then call us. In Holmeswood or here in Rufford, the draining is done on your driveway. Even at night, the pumps stay quiet enough for a residential street.
Rufford: drove off with AdBlue in a diesel?
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard arrived a mile or two beyond the top-up. Possibly it was on Church Road, possibly on the way out towards Preston, under 10 miles away.
In short: the AdBlue has been sucked through the fuel system. The injection pump and each injector see it as well on a longer trip, once your filter and lines have had it. Every restart, like every mile, pushes it on.
Do this: pull up anywhere safe, then turn your motor off. Service stations farther on are too far: from the M6, under 10 miles out of Rufford, take the first junction. Don't restart the vehicle to see if it has cleared; it will not have. About how far did it gone? Tell us when you call.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
You've had the car hardly a week. Your own motor either has no AdBlue or puts it elsewhere, so nothing warned you the AdBlue cap sits right next to your diesel. Throughout Lancashire, nobody is safe from it.
The upshot: just as above, divided by whether it ran, but with one added step. Plenty of rental and company agreements require the owner's sign-off before repairs.
Your move: hire firm or fleet manager first, us next, since settling it early saves time. Hanging on for a reply in the car park at the nearest station, or beside St Mary the Virgin? Leave the car off throughout.
Unsure about AdBlue in the diesel tank in Rufford?
"I think so" is often as honest as it gets. What cap was taken off, you cannot say; but the bottle feels lighter than expected, and ammonia lingers by the filler. The gates of Rufford CofE School in a hurry, perhaps, or a friend's drive out in Mere Side.
The upshot: your engine isn't harmed by a little AdBlue splashed on the filler. In your diesel tank, by contrast, AdBlue harms it. Any AdBlue in that tank would be pulled in by starting the vehicle, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
What to do: treat it as if it was put in. Do not fire it up. Checking a tank that turns out free of AdBlue beats draining one once it has been run — so ring and describe to us what you saw.
Rufford: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Whichever scenario you are in, the job starts the same way. Three questions are asked once we reach your car — on a filling station, a driveway, a road beside Rufford Old Hall or the car park outside Hesketh Arms: the fluid, the amount, and if it has been started. Over the phone, before dispatch, you are told our price, and those answers decide the work too.
AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some metals in fuel systems, and so it does not wash out unaided; that is why a full flush, after the drain, matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol. Clean diesel goes in after the filter has been cleaned or changed, and the car is then tested. If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there.
Firing it up comes at the end. We check it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before leaving. When it's noticed soon, the car very seldom has lasting damage, and the entire job happens where it is. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, nothing in advance. Many policies cover misfuelling, and so look at yours as we head over.
About Rufford itself
Rufford is a village in Lancashire, situated on the banks of a river at a low elevation of around 17 metres. Rufford lies near the villages of Holmeswood, Mawdesley, and Sollom, and is approximately 9.9 miles from Preston. Rufford has a population of around 821 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Rufford is located in the North West region of England, about 185.3 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Rufford, and across Lancashire too
As a village, Rufford shares its vans with the surrounding places — Sollom, Mawdesley — right across L postcodes. A postcode starting L40 1 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
No towing is needed, be it parked in the centre of Rufford or on a lay-by heading to Rufford Old Hall, and so leave it put. The van empties it where it stands. Assuming doesn't help near St Peter's Church, on a border or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Your scenario, summed up
Motor not started: ring, and leave it switched off. Started by now? Stop, switch off, phone. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest whichever case, in Rufford and Lancashire, on 0333 366 0103.