What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in St Martins
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: whether the motor has run since it was put in. Not run yet? Then keep the car that way, whether the car is — St Martins or Scotland Hills. Ring 0333 366 0103 with your key and motor both off. In St Martins, such a case is typically drained and cleaned where it stands. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. A larger job, then, but the same opening move.
Further down: the cases our technicians meet, wherever across Kent. Choose yours.
AdBlue in a diesel on a St Martins 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. Be it Asda, Esso or somewhere else around St Martins, the situation is identical.
Put simply: no better place exists to spot it. The AdBlue is in that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has sucked it in.
Next: resist the temptation to fire it up just to free up the petrol pump. A few things: a shove into a space with the staff assisting, the bottle kept, and a ring to us from the forecourt. Stuck beside the petrol pump? Explosion-proof equipment keeps a busy forecourt sensible, so we can drain the vehicle in place.
AdBlue in your diesel tank at home in St Martins
Days had passed with the warning light on. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the driveway, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look a second time at the cap. It occurs on drives just off Querns Road as often as anywhere.
The upshot: no driving since leaves this nearly as good to spotting it at the petrol pump. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of the tank and waits there. Overnight doesn't change that.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so no one moves the car in the morning. Then ring. Northgate or St Martins: wherever your drive is, that is where it gets emptied. Even at night, the pumps stay quiet enough for a residential street.
St Martins: set off with AdBlue in a diesel?
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later the engine began to run roughly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Maybe it was on Windmill Close, perhaps on the way out towards Canterbury, under a mile away.
Meaning? Your fuel pump has taken the AdBlue up. The high-pressure pump and each injector get it as well on a bigger trip, once the fuel filter and lines have it. Every restart, like every mile, pushes it on.
Do this: stop somewhere safe, then switch the motor off. On the M2, under 10 miles from St Martins, that means the next exit, not the services further on. Don't restart the vehicle to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Call us and say how far you drove.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
A week back, the car was new to you. On your own vehicle, AdBlue is missing or somewhere else. On this one, the cap is just by your diesel cap — news to you. It can happen to anyone, anywhere around Kent.
The upshot: just as above, split by whether it ran, but with one added stage. The owner frequently needs to sign off the work, under many hire and company contracts.
Next: phone the rental company or your fleet manager first, and then us — sorting it before our arrival is quicker. Hanging on for a reply at the car park outside Canterbury East, or near Querns Community Centre? Keep your car off meanwhile.
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Not sure, in St Martins
Occasionally the fair answer is "I think so". What cap was taken off, you can't say; but the bottle feels less than expected, and a whiff of ammonia hangs by the filler. Possibly it happened in a hurry at the school gates at St Thomas' Catholic Primary School, Canterbury, or on a friend's drive in St Dunstans.
The upshot: your motor isn't hurt by a little AdBlue spilled on the filler. A diesel tank with AdBlue in it is a different matter. If there is AdBlue in your tank, firing up the vehicle would draw it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
What to do: treat it as if it was put in. Don't crank it. Inspecting a tank that proves clean beats emptying one after it has been run — so phone and describe to us what you saw.
Every AdBlue drain around St Martins shares these stages
Each case has the same start to the job. Anywhere the car stands — The New Inn's car park, a road beside Saint Martin's Church, a drive, a filling station — the van gets there and asks about the liquid, the amount, plus whether the engine has turned over. Replies set the work; the price comes on the call whilst nobody has set off yet.
AdBlue forms crystals and is corrosive to certain metals in fuel systems, so it does not wash out unaided; that's why the flush, after this drain, matters far more here than with petrol. Fresh diesel goes in after the fuel filter is flushed or replaced, and the car is finally tested. Never started? In that case roughly half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
Firing it up comes at the end. With clean diesel in, it runs while our engineers check it's running correctly, and then we head off. We do the whole job where the car is, and long-term damage is very uncommon when it has been noticed quickly. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Worth knowing: many insurers include misfuelling cover, so a check of your policy while you wait is worthwhile.
About St Martins and where it is
St Martins is a suburban area located near the city of Canterbury in Kent, sitting at an elevation of 44 metres above sea level. St Martins is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, reflecting the typical residential development of the South East region. St Martins is situated close to nearby places such as Northgate and St Stephens, and is approximately 0.7 miles from Canterbury city centre. St Martins is also within commuting distance to London, being around 55 miles away.
St Martins and Kent: AdBlue drains across the area
Being a residential suburb, St Martins has the same vans as the nearby towns — St Stephens, Canterbury — right across CT postcodes. Telling us a CT1 1 postcode finds you fastest of all.
Stopped en route to Legacy Park, or right in the centre of St Martins, the vehicle remains put — there's no need to shift it at all. Draining happens right there. Phone and check rather than guess when you are by Conduit House, on a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
Your situation, summed up
Not run yet: keep the vehicle off and call. Whatever line fits, Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest on 0333 366 0103, across Kent and within St Martins — after you stop, switch off then phone, if it's run.