What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in St Ives
Everything hinges on one detail: whether your motor has started since the AdBlue went in — more than anything else. Out in Needingworth or here in St Ives, an unstarted engine must stay unrun. Usually that is draining and thoroughly flushing it on the spot in St Ives — and so keep the ignition and engine off then call 0333 366 0103. Already started? Stop once you safely can, then switch it off. A bigger job, yes, but the identical opening step.
Compare your case to a situation from the ones below, anywhere around Cambridgeshire you are.
On a St Ives forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Only now, nozzle still in hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, there at the pump. Somewhere in St Ives, then — the nearest petrol station, Shell, or anywhere else nearby.
Put simply: no better spot exists to spot it. Nothing has pulled it in, so the AdBlue stays just inside that tank.
What to do: do not get back in and crank it to clear the pump. Phone us from the forecourt once your car is in a bay — the staff will lend a hand to push it — and save the bottle. Stuck by the petrol pump? Explosion-proof kit makes a busy forecourt safe, so it can be drained in place.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a St Ives drive?
The warning light had been on for days. A bottle bought at the garage, emptied in on the driveway — and it's only at the bin that the cap got your eye. Right off Bridge Street is no less likely from anywhere.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. As it is unable to mix, AdBlue drops low in that tank and waits. One night parked alters nothing.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so no one moves the car in the morning. Then call. Hemingford Grey or St Ives: whichever your drive is, that's where it gets drained. Night-time clears outside a house are no problem: the pumps are low-noise.
St Ives: set off with AdBlue in a diesel?
Rough running, smoke, lost power or a lit dashboard arrived a mile or two beyond the fill. Somewhere on Merryland or on the road to Cambridge — under 15 miles away.
Put simply: the AdBlue has been sucked through the system. The high-pressure pump and each injector get it as well on a longer trip, once your filter and pipework have had it. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Next: find a sensible spot, stop, and turn your motor off. Exit by the first junction — not the services beyond — if you're on the A1(M), under 10 miles from St Ives. Starting it again to test achieves nothing — AdBlue doesn't clear itself. Roughly what distance did it go? Tell us as you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company vehicles
You have just had this car for days. The AdBlue filler is right next to the diesel filler, which you did not know, since your own motor either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. It can happen to anyone, anywhere in Cambridgeshire.
Put simply: one extra step on top of the situations above, and those depend on if it has run. Work on your vehicle frequently requires the owner's go-ahead under hire or company agreements.
Sorting it before the van turn up is quicker, and so phone the hire company or your fleet manager, then us. If you are stranded in the car park outside Huntingdon, or by CJ Townrow, while you wait for an answer, leave the car off.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, St Ives?
Occasionally the fair answer is "I think so". Which cap came off, you can't say; meanwhile the bottle feels less than it ought to, and a whiff of ammonia lingers by your filler. It might have been on a friend's driveway in Hemingford Abbots, or in a rush outside Eastfield Infant and Nursery School at the school run.
Meaning? Spills outside the inlet don't reach the motor at all. Inside your diesel tank, by contrast, AdBlue damages it. If there is AdBlue in the tank, firing up your car would pull it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Assume it went in, and never turn the key. Checking a tank that proves free of AdBlue is better than emptying one once it has been run — so ring then describe to us what you saw.
St Ives: what every AdBlue drain has in common
Every situation gets the same start to the job. Wherever your vehicle stands — Royal Oak's car park, a street by Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, a drive, a forecourt — the van gets there and asks about the fluid, the amount, and if the motor has been run. Your price comes over the phone, before a van leaves, and those replies shape the work.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a full flush — more vital after urea than after petrol, since crystals and corrosion won't clear on their own, however long it sits. Clean diesel is put in after the filter is flushed or replaced, and the car is then tested. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there.
Finally, our engineers start the engine. Our check that it runs smoothly on clean diesel comes before our engineers go. The entire job is done where the car is, and if it is spotted quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Check your insurance while we're en route: misfuelling cover comes built into many policies.
About St Ives itself
St Ives is a town in Cambridgeshire, situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse, with a mix of semi-detached housing and other residential properties. St Ives sits at a low elevation of around 13 metres, close to the nearby villages of Hemingford Grey and Holywell. St Ives is located near the city of Cambridge, approximately 11.6 miles away, and is within commuting distance of London, about 56.5 miles to the south. St Ives has a population of around 10557 people, making it a sizable town in the region.
AdBlue drains about St Ives and across Cambridgeshire
Being a riverside town, St Ives has the same vans as the surrounding places — Fenstanton, Holywell — right across PE postcodes. A postcode starting PE27 5 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Stopped heading to Holt Island Nature Reserve, or right in the centre of St Ives, your vehicle remains put — there is no need to move it at all. Our engineers drain the car where it is. Awkward to explain? By Oliver Cromwell or a county line? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
The one-line version
If it has not started, phone then leave it off. Started already? Pull over, turn off, phone. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whatever case, in St Ives and Cambridgeshire, on 0333 366 0103.