AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Thornhill: What Now?
Everything hinges on a single fact: whether your motor has started after the AdBlue went in — far more than anything else. Over in Beckermet or here around Thornhill, an unrun engine should stay that way. Call 0333 366 0103 with your ignition and engine both off. Across Thornhill, such a case is typically drained and cleaned on the spot. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. A larger job, yes, yet the identical first move.
Match your case to one of the ones below, wherever in Cumbria you are.
On a Thornhill forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Imagine it: stood by the petrol pump, holding the bottle, you realise the filler you opened was not the right one. It could be the BP, or the Texaco, or a different forecourt around Thornhill.
The point: of all places to notice, this is the best. No pump has pulled it through, and so the AdBlue sits only inside the tank.
Do this: keep out of the car, however much the queue needs clearing. Phone us from the forecourt after your car sits in a space — the staff will help roll it — and keep the receipt. Our equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a busy forecourt, and so a car that cannot be pushed away is cleared where it is at the pump.
At home in Thornhill with AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the dash, a warning had been lit all week. A bottle from the garage, tipped in at the driveway — and it was just at the bin that the cap got your eye. Drives near Thorny Road see it as much as any other street.
In short: if your car hasn't moved since, it is almost equal to spotting it at the forecourt. As it is unable to mix, AdBlue drops low in the tank and waits. One night standing alters none of that.
Your move: the keys in the house, so nobody drives your car anywhere first thing. Then, phone. In Carleton or here in Thornhill, the draining is done at your driveway. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Drove off with AdBlue in a diesel around Thornhill?
Lumpy running, smoke, lost power or a lit dashboard started a mile or two beyond the top-up. It might have been heading for Carlisle, under 50 miles away, or simply down New Road.
Put simply: the AdBlue has been pulled through the fuel system. Past your filter, through the lines, and — the more the distance — on into the high-pressure pump and every injector. Every restart, like every mile, pushes it deeper.
Next: pick a sensible place, pull in, then turn the engine off. Service stations farther on can wait: from the M6, under 50 miles out of Thornhill, use the first junction. No test restarts: clearing isn't something AdBlue does. Let us know the distance covered when you call.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
Seven days ago, the car was unknown to you. Your own motor either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere different, and so no one told you the AdBlue inlet sits just beside your diesel. Wherever you happen to be across Cumbria, every driver can be caught.
Meaning? Whatever applies above counts here — run or not — plus one further stage. Plenty of rental and fleet agreements need the owner's sign-off for repairs.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's quicker settled before our technicians get there than after. If you are stranded in the car park at Nethertown, or by Thornhill Social Club, while you wait for an answer, leave your car off.
Thornhill: unsure whether it was AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Now and then, "I think so" is the most anyone can truthfully say. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia round the filler, and you cannot remember which cap you took off. Possibly it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Thornhill Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Haile.
The point: your engine is not harmed by some AdBlue spilled on the outside. Inside the diesel tank, however, AdBlue damages it. Any AdBlue in the tank will be pulled in by starting your car, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
Take it that it got in, and never turn your engine. Ring us and explain what you saw; we would rather check a tank that turns out free of AdBlue than drain one that has already been run.
Thornhill: what each AdBlue drain has in common
Every situation gets the same opening to the job. Three things are asked when our engineers reach your car — on a filling station, a driveway, a street by Thornhill Mission or the car park at the pub in the village: the liquid, the amount, and whether the motor has been started. Those answers decide this work, and you get the price by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then that tank is cleared and your 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 does not rinse out on its own. Finally come the filter, cleaned or renewed if necessary; clean diesel; and a test of your vehicle. Where your engine hasn't run, allow about half an hour on site, for most cases.
Firing it up comes last. Our test that it runs smoothly on new diesel comes before our engineers go. The whole job is done where the vehicle is, and if it is noticed quickly, long-term damage is very uncommon. Paying comes that day, never upfront. For your insurer, you get a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling, and so look at yours while the van travels.
About Thornhill itself
Thornhill is a small village in Cumbria, situated on the coast at an elevation of 69 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Thornhill lies near the towns of Egremont and Carleton, and is approximately 37.9 miles from the city of Carlisle. Thornhill is part of a wider rural area, with Middletown being another nearby settlement. Thornhill's population is around 824 people, living in a relatively remote location, some 248.5 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Cumbria, Thornhill included
Egremont and Middletown have the same teams as Thornhill, a coastal village, along with further towns over CA postcodes. Your whereabouts is quickest from a postcode that starts CA22 2.
Parked en route to Thornhill Football Club, or bang in the centre of Thornhill, your car remains put — there's no need to move it anywhere. The drain is done on the spot. Assuming won't help near Florence Art Centre, on a county line or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
Your situation, summed up
Still unrun? Keep the vehicle that way then phone. Already run: stop, switch off then ring. Either way, Petrol in Diesel takes it from there around Thornhill and anywhere around Cumbria on 0333 366 0103.