What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in St Columb Major
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank comes down to one thing more than any other: whether the motor has run since it got in. Not started yet? Then leave it like that, whether your vehicle sits — St Columb Major or Trekenning. Phone 0333 366 0103 with your key and motor both off. In St Columb Major, that is generally drained and flushed where it stands. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Step one stays unchanged, even though the work is bigger.
Compare your case to a situation from the list below, wherever across Cornwall you happen to be.
AdBlue in a diesel on a St Columb Major forecourt
You are at the petrol 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 Gulf, or perhaps the Esso, or a different forecourt in St Columb Major.
Meaning? Spotting it here is as good as it gets. Nothing has pulled it through, and so the AdBlue sits only in your tank.
What to do: do not get back in and fire it up to clear the petrol pump. Have the attendants to lend a hand rolling it to a bay, hold on to the receipt, then phone us right there. The equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a live forecourt, so a car that cannot be pushed clear gets drained where it is at the petrol pump.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a St Columb Major drive?
On the dash, a warning had been lit all week. A bottle from the shop, emptied in on the driveway — and it's just by the bin that the cap got your eye. Houses just off Fore Street are caught out as much as anywhere else.
The point: no driving since makes it nearly equal to finding it at the pump. At the floor of that tank sits where AdBlue stays, because it won't blend with diesel — and a night passing changes no difference.
Put the keys indoors tonight — otherwise someone may drive it away first thing — then call us. In Gluvian or here in St Columb Major, the draining happens at your driveway. Late-night empties outside a house are no problem: the pumps are quiet.
Drove off with AdBlue in a diesel around St Columb Major?
Rough running, smoke, falling power or a glowing dashboard arrived a short way after the fill. Broad Street, perhaps, or the way towards Truro — a run of under 15 miles.
What it means: your fuel system has drawn the AdBlue in. The injection pump and each injector get it as well on a bigger run, after the fuel filter and pipework have had it. More miles, more starts: further it travels.
Stop safely — that's the first step — then turn everything off. Services further along are too far: from the M5, over 50 miles out of St Columb Major, use the next junction. Do not restart it to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Ring us and say how far you went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company motors
You've had the vehicle hardly a week. On your own car, AdBlue is missing or elsewhere. On this one, the inlet is just by your diesel inlet — news to you. Across Cornwall, nobody is immune.
What it means: the same as the scenarios above, depending on whether it has run, with one more step. Work on the vehicle often requires the owner's go-ahead under hire or fleet agreements.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's faster settled before we get there than after. Stuck near St Columb Library or outside St Columb Road till the firm answers, your car remains switched off the whole time.
St Columb Major: unsure whether it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Truthfully, the only answer might be that you think it did. A slight ammonia smell hangs near the filler, the bottle seems too light, and which cap came off is a blur. Perhaps it happened in a hurry at the school gates at St Columb Major Academy, or on a friend's drive in Tregamere.
What it means: a little spilled round your filler does no damage to your motor. In the diesel tank, however, AdBlue damages it. Any AdBlue in the tank would be pulled in by starting the car, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
Next: assume it went in, and leave the engine off. Inspecting a tank that proves clean is better than draining one after it has been run — so phone then tell us what you noticed.
What each AdBlue drain in St Columb Major has in common
The job begins identically, whichever your case. Our technicians come to your car, whether it is on a forecourt, a drive, the car park at Red Lion or a side street near The Columba Centre, and ask three things: what got in, about how much, and whether the motor has been run. Answers shape the job; the price comes on the call whilst nobody has set off yet.
Emptying the tank comes first, followed by a careful flush — more important after urea than with petrol, because crystals and corrosion will not go on their own, however long you wait. Clean diesel is put in once the fuel filter has been flushed or changed, and the car is then checked. If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there.
Finally, we fire it up. Our engineers check it runs properly on clean diesel before leaving. The entire job is done where your car is, and when it is caught early, 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. Plenty of policies include misfuelling, and so look at yours while the van travels.
About St Columb Major itself
St Columb Major is a town in Cornwall, situated inland at an elevation of 94 metres, approximately 12.8 miles from the city of Truro. St Columb Major has a population of around 3663 people, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. St Columb Major is surrounded by smaller settlements, including Gluvian, Lanhainsworth, and Tregatillian, and is located about 222.1 miles west of London.
AdBlue drains across Cornwall, St Columb Major included
St Columb Major is a town, and the same vans that cover it work the places around it too, Lanhainsworth and Tregatillian among them, across the TR postcode area. A postcode starting TR9 6 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Centre of St Columb Major or a lay-by towards St Columb Recreation Ground: wherever it sits, your car doesn't need to shift an inch for the drain. Where it sits, that's where it gets cleared. If you're somewhere hard to explain, near Christian Bible Chapel or close to a border, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Your situation, in one line
Still unrun? Leave the car that way then phone. Started already? Pull over, switch off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whichever it is, across St Columb Major and Cornwall, on 0333 366 0103.