What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Swindon
One thing matters above all once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is whether your engine has been started since. Anywhere the car is — Himley, Swindon — don't start an engine that hasn't been started yet. Keep nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, then expect a thorough flush after a drain, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Swindon. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. It is a larger job, though stage one doesn't change.
Wherever across Staffordshire it took place, one of the cases below matches yours.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Swindon forecourt
The cap you unscrewed was the wrong one — and you only spot it while you are stood at the pump, bottle or nozzle in your hand. Be it Texaco, Esso or anywhere else around Swindon, the case is identical.
In short: no better place exists to discover it. The AdBlue is in that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
What to do: don't get back in and crank it to clear the pump. A few things: a shove into a bay with the staff helping, the bottle kept, and a call to us from where you stand. Can't move the vehicle by the pump? Our explosion-proof kit makes a live forecourt safe, so we can drain the vehicle where it is.
AdBlue in the diesel tank on a Swindon drive?
For days the dashboard had been warning you. A bottle bought at the garage, emptied in on the drive — and it was just at the recycling that the cap got your eye. Houses just off Winston Road get caught out as much as anywhere else.
Meaning? Provided the car hasn't moved since, it is second to the forecourt case. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of your tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
Your move: keys in the house, and so nobody takes the vehicle anywhere at breakfast. After that, ring. Hinksford or Swindon: whichever your drive sits, that is where it gets cleared. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving in Swindon?
A mile or two beyond topping up, your motor started misbehaving: rough running, smoke, less power, lights on the dash. Maybe it was on High Street, maybe on the way out towards Wolverhampton, under 10 miles away.
The upshot: your system has drawn AdBlue in by now. Past your filter, through the lines, and — the further the distance — deeper into the injection pump and every injector. More driving, more starts: further it goes.
Do this: pull up somewhere safe, then switch your motor off. Swindon lies under 10 miles from the M5; on it, come off at the next junction rather than pushing on to the services. Starting it again to check achieves nothing — AdBlue doesn't clear on its own. About how far did it gone? Tell us when you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
You've only driven this vehicle a week. On your own car, AdBlue is absent or elsewhere. On this one, its cap is right by your diesel inlet — news to you. It can happen to anyone, anywhere across Staffordshire.
Meaning? Whichever applies above applies too — run or not — and one further step. Any work on your car often needs the owner's approval under hire or fleet agreements.
Sorting it before the van turn up is quicker, and so phone the rental company or your fleet manager, and then us. Keep the vehicle switched off while the answer arrives, even if you're waiting outside Stourbridge Town or close to United Reform Church.
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Not sure, around Swindon
Honestly, the only answer might be that you think it did. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there's a faint smell of ammonia round your filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. The gates of St John's CofE (C) Primary School in a rush, perhaps, or a friend's drive over in Blakeley.
Put simply: spillage near your filler leaves your engine unharmed. The diesel tank with AdBlue in it is a different matter. You can't tell which by turning the key, and doing so would suck in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
What to do: treat it as if it went in. Do not fire it up. Ring us and explain what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out clean than drain one that has already been run.
The common ground in every Swindon AdBlue drain
Whichever scenario you are in, this job starts the same way. Three things come when we arrive — at a forecourt, a driveway, a street by St John The Evangelist Church or the car park at Old Bush: the liquid, the quantity, and whether the motor has been started. Over the phone, ahead of anything else, you are told our quote, and those answers shape the job too.
AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some metals used in fuel systems, and so it won't wash out on its own; that is why a full flush, after the drain, matters much more here than with petrol. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Most unstarted cars are a half-hour visit from the moment we arrive.
We start the car last. Our check that it runs properly on clean diesel comes before our engineers go. The entire job is done where the vehicle is, and when it is spotted early, permanent damage is very unusual. Paying is that day, never in advance. For the insurer, there is a VAT invoice plus a report from the engineer. Check your insurance while we're en route: misfuelling cover is included in plenty of policies.
About Swindon, for a moment
Swindon is a small village in Staffordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of around 70 metres. Swindon lies near the cities of Wolverhampton and Birmingham, within the West Midlands region. Swindon has a mix of housing types, with semi-detached homes being predominant, and is close to nearby places such as Hinksford and Smestow. Swindon is located approximately 112 miles west of London, with Wolverhampton being the nearest city at around 6 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Staffordshire, Swindon included
Smestow and Brickbridge have the identical vans as Swindon, a village, plus further places throughout DY postcodes. Your location is quickest from a postcode beginning DY3 4.
Stopped heading to Himley Plantation, or bang in the heart of Swindon, the vehicle remains put — there is no need to move it at all. Wherever it stands, that's where it gets cleared. If you're somewhere hard to describe, near Wombourne Methodist Church or close to a border, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In one line: your situation
Motor never started: phone, leaving it switched off. Run by now? Stop, turn off, ring. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder whichever it is, across Swindon and Staffordshire, on 0333 366 0103.