The Quay: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
One fact matters most when AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and it is whether your engine has been started afterwards. Not started yet? Then leave the vehicle that way, wherever the vehicle is — The Quay or Newtown. Keep nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, then expect a proper flush plus a drain, carried out right where the car sits around The Quay. When your engine has run, stop safely straight away, then switch the car off. A bigger job, then, yet the same opening move.
Match what happened to a situation from the list below, wherever in Devon you happen to be.
On a The Quay forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
You are at the pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. It could be the Esso, or the Valero, or a different forecourt around The Quay.
What it means: this is the best location to find out. Only the tank has AdBlue; not one component past it has drawn any in.
Do this: stay out of the driver's seat, however much the pump needs clearing. Ask the staff to help you push the vehicle into a parking space, keep the till receipt or the bottle, then ring us from the forecourt. Our equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a busy forecourt, and so a vehicle that cannot be pushed clear gets drained right at the pump.
The Quay, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. 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. Homes just off The Quay are hit as often as anywhere else.
Put simply: if the car hasn't moved since, it is nearly equal to spotting it at the pump. Being reluctant to blend, AdBlue drops low in that tank and stays. One night parked changes none of that.
Next: stop any early drive by putting your keys indoors, then phone us. Exeter or The Quay: whichever your drive sits, that is where it gets cleared. Even at night, our pumps stay quiet enough for a driveway.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving in The Quay?
A mile or two after topping up, the motor began playing up: rough running, smoke, lost power, lights on your dash. Possibly it was on Watergate, possibly on the way out towards Exeter, under a mile away.
Meaning? Your fuel pump has sucked the AdBlue in. Past the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — the further the mileage — on into the high-pressure pump and every injector. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
Do this: stop anywhere safe, then switch your motor off. On the M5, under 3 miles from The Quay, that means the next exit, not the services further on. Do not restart the car 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
It is a motor you have had for a week. Your own vehicle either does without AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere, and so no one told you the AdBlue cap was just next to your diesel. Wherever you happen to be across Devon, any driver could slip up.
What it means: the same as the situations above, depending on whether it has run, with one more step. The owner frequently needs to sign off the work, under many rental and fleet contracts.
Do this: rental firm or your fleet manager to begin with, us second, since sorting it beforehand cuts time. If you are stranded in the car park outside Exeter St Thomas, or by The Custom House, while you wait for an answer, leave your car off.
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Not sure, around The Quay
"I think so" is sometimes the most honest as it gets. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there's a faint smell of ammonia around the filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. Maybe on a friend's driveway in St Thomas, or in a rush outside St Leonard's (CofE) Primary School (VC) on the school run.
What it means: a little spilled around the filler does no damage to the engine. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. If there is AdBlue in your tank, starting your car would suck it in, and it would not tell you which either.
Take it that it went in, and never start your key. Inspecting a tank that turns out clean beats draining one once it has been run — so ring and describe to us what you saw.
The common ground in each The Quay AdBlue drain
Every situation gets the same opening to the job. Filling station, driveway, The Prospect Inn's car park or a street by Cygnet New Theatre — our van comes to your car, and three questions follow: what fluid, which quantity, and if it has run. The price is given over the phone, ahead of anyone setting off, and those answers set the job.
Then your tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly, which counts more with AdBlue than with petrol: AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not rinse out on its own. Finally are the fuel filter, flushed or renewed if necessary; fresh diesel; and a test of the vehicle. Not started? In that case about half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
The final step is starting the car. Before our engineers leave, it is tested to be sure it runs correctly on new diesel. If it is spotted quickly, the car very seldom has permanent damage, and the whole job takes place where it is. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About The Quay and where it is
The Quay is a suburban area located on the riverside in Devon, with a mix of residential and commercial properties. The Quay sits at an elevation of 44 metres, close to the city centre of Exeter, and is characterized by a high proportion of flat dwellings. The Quay is part of the larger Exeter urban area, with nearby neighbourhoods including Barnfield and St Leonards. The Quay has a population of approximately 8793 residents, making it a sizable suburban community.
AdBlue drains around The Quay and across Devon
As a residential suburb, The Quay has the same vans as the surrounding places — St Leonards, Barnfield — right across EX postcodes. A postcode starting EX2 4 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Central The Quay or a layby towards Colleton Crescent Gardens: either way it sits, your car never needs to move at all for the drain. We drain the vehicle where it stands. Ring and check instead of guessing if you're by Salvation Army, near a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
Your scenario, summed up
Not run yet: keep the car off then ring. Run already? Stop, turn off, phone. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest whichever it is, across The Quay and Devon, on 0333 366 0103.