AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in The Park, and What to Do Next
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank depends on one thing more than any other: if the engine has been run since it went in. Anywhere your vehicle stands — Newton Town, The Park — don't run a motor that hasn't run yet. Leave the engine and the ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103; it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in The Park. When the engine has run, pull in safely straight away, then switch the vehicle off. The job is bigger, yet the first stage is the same.
Further down: the cases our engineers see, wherever around Nottinghamshire. Choose yours.
AdBlue in a diesel on a The Park 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, Essar or somewhere else around The Park, the situation is identical.
What it means: this is the ideal spot to find out. Nothing has pulled it in, and so the AdBlue stays just inside that tank.
Freeing the petrol pump is no reason to start it — and so don't get back in. Ask the staff to help you push the vehicle into a parking spot, keep the till receipt or the bottle, then phone us from the forecourt. Draining it there at the petrol pump is possible when it can't be moved, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
The Park, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
For days the dashboard had been warning you. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the driveway, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look once more at the cap. Houses just off Ravensdale Road are hit as often as anywhere else.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. Diesel and AdBlue keep apart: the AdBlue drops to the base of the tank and remains put, no matter how long it waits.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so no one moves your car in the morning. Then call. Ravensdale or The Park: wherever your driveway sits, that's where it gets drained. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
The Park: 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. Somewhere along Hibbert Road or on the road towards Nottingham — under 15 miles away.
What it means: your fuel system has sucked the AdBlue in. Through the filter, through the pipework, and — the further the mileage — deeper into the injection pump and every injector. It travels deeper with every mile covered and every restart.
Stop somewhere safe — that is the first step — then turn it off. On the M1, under 10 miles from The Park, that means the next junction, not the services further on. Starting it again to check gets nothing — AdBlue never clears on its own. About what distance had it gone? Say so when you phone.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
A week back, it was new to you. Unbeknown to you, the two inlets sit next to each other here — not like your own car, which has no AdBlue or keeps it in another spot. It can happen to anyone, anywhere across Nottinghamshire.
Put simply: an extra step on top of the situations above, which turn on whether it's run. The owner often needs to sign off any work, under plenty of hire and fleet agreements.
Sorting it before the van turn up is faster, so phone the rental company or your fleet manager, then us. Stuck near Old Mill (Main Building) or outside Mansfield until someone answers, your vehicle remains turned off the whole time.
Unsure about AdBlue in the diesel tank around The Park?
Now and then, "I think so" is all anyone can truthfully say. Which cap came off, you can't say; meanwhile the bottle weighs lighter than expected, and a whiff of ammonia lingers by your filler. The gates of Heatherley Primary School in a hurry, say, or someone's driveway over in Mansfield Woodhouse.
Meaning? Drips around the inlet never reach your engine at all. The diesel tank with AdBlue in it is another story. Any AdBlue in your tank will be sucked in by firing up the car, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
What to do: treat it as if it got in. Do not start the car. Tell us what you noticed on your phone. A clean tank looked at counts as a better result than a run one drained.
What every AdBlue drain in The Park has in common
Whichever situation you are in, the job starts the same way. Our engineers come to your car, whether it is at a forecourt, a drive, the car park at The Ravensdale or a side street close to St Lawrence Church Hall, and ask three things: what got in, about how much, and if your motor has been run. Those replies decide the work, and you get the quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system purged 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 doesn't rinse out on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the fuel filter is cleaned or replaced, and the car is then tested. Where your engine hasn't run, expect about half an hour once we arrive, in most jobs.
Last, our technicians start the car. Our check that it runs smoothly on new diesel comes before we head off. We do the whole job where the car is, and lasting damage is very unusual if 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. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About The Park, briefly
The Park is a suburban area situated on the riverside in Nottinghamshire, with an elevation of around 98 metres. The Park lies approximately 13.4 miles from Nottingham and 121.8 miles from London, placing it in a commuter belt with access to major cities. The Park is characterised by its semi-detached housing stock and is near to other local places such as Ravensdale and Mansfield. The Park has a population of around 4526 residents.
AdBlue drains around The Park, and across Nottinghamshire too
Throughout NG postcodes, the vans covering The Park — a residential suburb — work nearby towns too, Mansfield and Forest Town included. Your location comes clearest from a postcode that starts NG18 2.
Whether the car is on a lay-by on the way to Maun Valley Nature Reserve or in a car park in the middle of The Park, it doesn't need to shift. The van drains it where it stands. Phone and check rather than guess if you're close to Saint Lawrences Church, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down.
Your situation, summed up
Still unrun? Keep it off and ring. Run already? Pull over, turn off, phone. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder whichever it is, in The Park and Nottinghamshire, on 0333 366 0103.