What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Sworton Heath
One thing matters most once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is whether the motor has been started since. Out in Church Green or right in Sworton Heath, an unrun motor should stay that way. Call 0333 366 0103 with the ignition and motor still off. Across Sworton Heath, that is typically drained and flushed on the spot. Where the motor has run, pull in somewhere safe straight away, then switch the car off. The job is bigger, but the first stage is the same.
Below: the cases our technicians meet, wherever around Cheshire. Pick the one that fits.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Sworton Heath forecourt
Imagine it: standing by the pump, holding the nozzle, you realise the cap you opened was not the right one. It could be the the nearest petrol station, or perhaps the Shell, or another station in Sworton Heath.
The point: of every spot to notice, this is the best. The AdBlue is in your tank and nowhere else. Nothing has pulled it in.
What to do: do not get back in and fire it up to clear the pump. Ask the staff to help you roll your car into a parking spot, keep the till receipt or the bottle, and ring us from the forecourt. Emptying it right at the pump is possible if it cannot be shifted, since the equipment is explosion-proof.
AdBlue in the diesel tank on a Sworton Heath drive?
The warning light had been on for days. A bottle bought at the shop, emptied in on the driveway — and it's only at the bin that the cap caught your eye. Just off Warrington Road is not less likely from anywhere.
Meaning? As long as the vehicle has not moved since, it's second to the pump case. Diesel and AdBlue stay separate: the AdBlue drops to the base of your tank and remains there, no matter how long the night.
What to do: leave the keys inside the house so no one moves your car in the morning. Then call. In High Legh or here in Sworton Heath, the drain is done at your driveway. Night-time empties outside a house are no problem: the pumps are low-noise.
On the road in Sworton Heath with AdBlue in a diesel
Rough running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard started a mile or two after the top-up. Anywhere along Crabtree Lane or on the road towards Salford — under 15 miles away.
What it means: your fuel system has pulled the AdBlue in. Past the fuel filter, along the pipework, and — the further the mileage — on into the injection pump and every injector. Each restart, like each mile, pushes it deeper.
Next: pick a sensible place, stop, and turn your motor off. Leave at the first junction — not the services further along — if you're on the M56, under a mile from Sworton Heath. Restarting it to check gets nothing — AdBlue doesn't clear on its own. About how far had it go? Say so when you phone.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company motors
You have had this vehicle hardly a week. On your own vehicle, AdBlue is missing or somewhere else. On this one, its cap is just by your diesel inlet — a surprise to you. Any driver, anywhere across Cheshire, might do the same.
What it means: the same as the situations above, depending on whether it has run, with one more stage. Work on your vehicle often needs the owner's go-ahead under hire or company agreements.
What to do: ring the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is quicker settled before our engineers get there than after. Leave it off while the answer comes, even if you are waiting outside Birchwood or close to High Legh Village Hall.
Sworton Heath: unsure whether it was AdBlue in the diesel tank?
At times the honest answer is "I think so". The bottle is lighter than it should be, there's a faint smell of ammonia about your filler, and you cannot remember which cap you took off. Maybe it happened in a hurry at the school gates at High Legh Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Booths Hill.
In short: spillage round the filler does the motor no harm. AdBlue inside the diesel tank does. If there is AdBlue in the tank, turning on the car will suck it in, and it would not tell you which either.
Assume it went in, and never turn the key. Checking a tank that proves free of AdBlue beats emptying one once it's been run — so ring and describe to us what you saw.
The common ground in each Sworton Heath AdBlue drain
Whatever the case, one opening is used. Three questions come once we reach your car — at a filling station, a driveway, a road by St John, High Legh or the car park outside Bears Paw: the fluid, the quantity, and if the motor has run. The price comes over the phone, before a van leaves, and those replies shape the job.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly, which matters 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. Next is the filter — flushed, or replaced where necessary — then clean diesel, and a test of the car. If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
Firing it up comes last. Before we go, it is checked to make sure it runs correctly on fresh diesel. We do the whole job where your car is, and permanent damage is very uncommon when it has been caught quickly. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Dig out your insurance while we're en route: misfuelling cover comes built into many policies.
About Sworton Heath itself
Sworton Heath is a small hamlet in Cheshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 70 metres, and is located near the communities of High Legh and Deansgreen. Sworton Heath is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its rural setting. Sworton Heath sits within commuting distance of Salford, which is approximately 11 miles away, and is around 161 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Sworton Heath, and across Cheshire too
Over WA postcodes, the teams covering Sworton Heath — a rural hamlet — work nearby places too, Deansgreen and Broomedge among them. A postcode starting WA16 0 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
No moving is required, whether stopped centrally in Sworton Heath or on a layby en route to Hey Wood, and so keep it put. Wherever it sits, that's where it is cleared. Guessing won't help near High Legh Miniature Railway, close to a border or somewhere awkward to pin down; phone and ask.
The one-line version
Still unrun? Keep it that way and phone. Run by now? Pull over, switch off, phone. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest whatever case, across Sworton Heath and Cheshire, on 0333 366 0103.