What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Three Maypoles
One thing counts above all once AdBlue is in a diesel tank, and that is if your engine has been started since. Over in Majors Green or right around Three Maypoles, an unrun motor must stay that way. Phone 0333 366 0103 with your ignition and motor both off. Across Three Maypoles, such a case is generally drained and flushed on the spot. Pull over the minute you safely can and switch off, if it has already run. Step one remains the same, even if the job grows.
Wherever in West Midlands it took place, one of the situations below fits yours.
At the petrol pump around Three Maypoles: AdBlue in a diesel
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. Perhaps you are at the Sainsbury's, possibly at the Shell, perhaps somewhere else around Three Maypoles.
What it means: this is the best spot to find out. Nothing has drawn it in, and so the AdBlue stays only inside that tank.
Clearing the petrol pump is no reason to run it — so do not get back in. Three jobs: a push into a bay with the staff assisting, the bottle kept, and a ring to us from the forecourt. Emptying it right at the petrol pump is fine when it cannot be shifted, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
AdBlue in your diesel tank on a Three Maypoles drive?
Several days had passed with the warning light on. You bought a bottle, poured it in on the driveway, and only when you put the empty bottle in the recycling did you look again at the cap. Drives near Dickens Heath Road get it as much as anywhere.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is almost as good as the forecourt. Diesel and AdBlue stay apart: the AdBlue drops to the base of the tank and remains there, no matter how long it waits.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so nobody moves the vehicle in the morning. Then call. Your driveway is where it is drained, be it in Three Maypoles or Dickens Heath. Night-time drains outside a house are no problem: the pumps are quiet.
Set off with AdBlue in a diesel in Three Maypoles?
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. Perhaps it was on Broom Lane, perhaps on the way out towards Birmingham, under 10 miles away.
The upshot: the system has drawn AdBlue through by now. Through the filter, through the pipework, and — the more the mileage — deeper into the injection pump and each injector. It travels deeper with every extra mile driven and every restart.
Do this: pull up anywhere safe, then switch the motor off. On the M42, under 3 miles from Three Maypoles, that means the next exit, not the services further on. Do not restart it to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Let us know the mileage driven as you call.
Hire, lease or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank
You have only driven this car a week. The AdBlue filler sits right beside the diesel one, which you did not know, because your own car either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Any driver, wherever around West Midlands, might make it.
Meaning? Whichever case above applies here — run or not — and one further stage. Work on your vehicle frequently needs the owner's approval under rental or company terms.
Settling it before the van turn up is faster, and so ring the hire company or your fleet manager, and then us. Keep the car switched off as the reply comes, even if you are waiting at Whitlocks End or near Dickens Heath Village Hall.
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Not sure, around Three Maypoles
At times the honest answer is "I think so". Which cap was taken off, you cannot say; meanwhile the bottle feels less than expected, and ammonia hangs by your filler. Possibly it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Dickens Heath Community Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Cheswick Green.
Meaning? Spills around the filler don't touch the motor at all. AdBlue inside the diesel tank does. If there is AdBlue in that tank, turning on the vehicle would suck it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Assume it went in, and never start your key. Call us and explain what you saw; we'd rather check a tank that turns out clean than drain one that has already been run.
Each AdBlue drain in Three Maypoles shares these stages
Whichever scenario you are in, the job starts the same way. Our technicians come to the car, whether it's at a forecourt, a driveway, the car park at Morton's Kitchen Bar & Deli or a side street near Dickens Heath Library, and ask three things: what went in, about how much, and if your motor has run. On the phone, before dispatch, you hear the price, and those answers shape the job too.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a careful flush — more important after urea than with petrol, because crystals and corrosion won't go on their own, no matter how long it sits. Finally come the fuel filter, flushed or replaced if necessary; clean diesel; and a test of the car. If the engine hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there.
Starting the car comes last. With clean diesel in, it runs while our engineers check it is running properly, and then we head off. Lasting damage is very rare if it's spotted quickly, and the entire job is done where the car is. 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 while we are on the way.
About Three Maypoles itself
Three Maypoles is a small hamlet situated on the riverside in the West Midlands, with an elevation of around 141 metres. Three Maypoles lies close to several nearby places, including Dickens Heath, Shirley Heath, and Whitlocks End, and is approximately 6.8 miles from Birmingham. Three Maypoles is characterized by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its relatively rural setting within the wider urban area. Three Maypoles is also relatively distant from London, at around 94.8 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Three Maypoles, and across West Midlands too
Three Maypoles is a rural hamlet, and the same vans that cover it work the places around it too, Shirley Heath and Whitlocks End among them, across the B postcode area. Quickest of all: a B90 1 postcode for your location.
No towing is required, be it parked centrally in Three Maypoles or on a layby heading to Dickens Heath Local Nature Reserve, and so keep it put. Our engineers drain the car where it sits. Assuming won't help near Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Church, on a border or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and ask.
In one line: your situation
Not run yet: keep the vehicle off and call. Started by now? Stop, turn off, phone. Petrol in Diesel takes over the rest whatever it is, across Three Maypoles and West Midlands, on 0333 366 0103.