What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Sandy
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: if the motor has run since it went in. Wherever your vehicle stands — Brook End, Sandy — never run an engine that has not run yet. Keep nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, then expect a thorough flush plus a drain, done right where the vehicle sits in Sandy. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. The job is bigger, yet the first step is the same.
Wherever across Bedfordshire it took place, one of the cases below fits yours.
Sandy forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
Just now, nozzle yet in hand, it dawns on you that the cap you opened was the wrong one, there at the pump. It might be the Texaco, or perhaps the Esso, or a different forecourt in Sandy.
Put simply: there is no better spot to be to spot it. Nothing has drawn it through, so the AdBlue stays only in your tank.
Freeing the pump is no excuse to start it — and so don't get back in. Get the attendants to lend a hand rolling it to a bay, save the bottle, then phone us from there. If it can't be moved, it can be emptied at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a working forecourt.
At home in Sandy with AdBlue in the diesel tank
On your dash, a warning had been lit for days. A bottle bought at the garage, tipped in on the drive — and it's only by the recycling that the cap got a second look. Drives near High Street see it as much as any other street.
In short: if the car has not been driven since, it is nearly as good as finding out at the pump. On the floor of the tank sits where AdBlue waits, since it won't blend with diesel — and a night passing changes no difference.
Put your keys indoors tonight — otherwise a person may drive it off first thing — then call us. Out in Girtford or right here around Sandy, the draining is done on your driveway. Night-time drains beside a house are fine: the pumps are low-noise.
Drove off with AdBlue in a diesel around Sandy?
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power or a glowing dashboard started a short way beyond the fill. Perhaps it was on Market Square, possibly on the way out towards Cambridge, under 25 miles away.
Meaning? Your fuel pump has taken the AdBlue up. Past your filter, through the lines, and — the more the mileage — on into the injection pump and every injector. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Next: pick a sensible place, stop, and turn the motor off. Services farther along can wait: from the A1(M), under 10 miles out of Sandy, take the first junction. No test starts: clearing itself is not something AdBlue will do. Let us hear the mileage covered when you ring.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
You have had the vehicle hardly a week. Your own motor either does without AdBlue or keeps it somewhere different, and so nothing told you the AdBlue inlet was right beside the diesel. Anywhere you happen to be in Bedfordshire, every motorist can be caught.
Meaning? Whatever case above applies here — run or not — plus one further step. Plenty of hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on the vehicle.
Next: ring the hire company or the fleet manager first, then us — sorting it before our arrival is faster. Leave the vehicle switched off while the answer comes, even if you are waiting outside the nearest station or close to Sandy Library.
Sandy: unsure whether it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Now and then, "I think so" is the most anyone can honestly say. A slight ammonia-like whiff hangs near your filler, the bottle feels too light, and which cap came off is a blur. Maybe at a friend's driveway in Stratford, or in a rush by Robert Peel Primary School at the school run.
The point: the engine isn't harmed by a little AdBlue spilled on the filler. The diesel tank with AdBlue in it is another story. If there is AdBlue in that tank, firing up your car will suck it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
What to do: treat it as if it went in. Do not start it. Call us and explain what you saw; we would rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
Sandy: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Whichever scenario you are in, this job starts the same way. Wherever the car stands — The FourHorsemen's car park, a street by St Swithun's Church, a drive, a forecourt — our van arrives and asks for the fluid, the amount, and whether your engine has been run. The price comes on the call, ahead of anyone setting off, and the answers shape the job.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system purged thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not rinse out on its own. Then is the filter — flushed, or replaced where needed — then clean diesel, and a test of your car. Most unstarted cars are a half-hour job from the moment our technicians get there.
Our technicians fire it up at the end. With new diesel in, it runs while we make sure it's running properly, and then we leave. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, and if it's caught soon, lasting damage is very uncommon. Paying comes on the day, never in advance. For your insurer, you get a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer. Check your insurance before we're en route: misfuelling cover is built into plenty of policies.
About Sandy
Sandy is a town situated on the River Ivel in Bedfordshire, with a population of around 12179 people. Sandy sits at an elevation of approximately 30 metres, near the villages of Girtford, Beeston, and Seddington. Sandy is characterized by its semi-detached housing stock and is located about 43.5 miles from London, making it a commuter town with easy access to the capital. Sandy is also close to the city of Cambridge, which is around 18.1 miles away.
Sandy and Bedfordshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Sandy is a riverside town, and the same vans that cover it work the towns around it too, Beeston and Seddington among them, across the SG postcode area. A postcode starting SG19 1 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
No moving is needed, be it stopped centrally in Sandy or in a lay-by en route to The Riddy, and so leave it where it is. Where it sits, that is where it gets cleared. Awkward to explain? By St Swithun's Church Rooms or a county line? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
In one line: your situation
Not run yet: keep the car off and ring. Already run: stop, switch off then ring. Either way, Petrol in Diesel takes it from there in Sandy and anywhere in Bedfordshire on 0333 366 0103.