Thurlestone: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank comes down to one thing more than any other: whether your engine has run since it was put in. Not started yet? Then keep the car that way, wherever your vehicle is — Thurlestone or Bigbury-on-Sea. Leave the motor and the ignition off then call 0333 366 0103; it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is around Thurlestone. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The job is bigger, yet the first step is the same.
Further down: the cases our technicians meet, wherever across Devon. Choose the one that fits.
On a Thurlestone forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Only at this point, nozzle yet in your hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, there at the pump. It could be the Asda Express, or perhaps the Gulf, or a different forecourt in Thurlestone.
Meaning? Spotting it here is the best it gets. The AdBlue is in that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has drawn it in.
Next: resist the temptation to fire it up only to free up the petrol pump. Ring us from the forecourt after the car is in a bay — the attendants will help roll it — and keep the bottle. Our equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a busy forecourt, and so a car that can't be pushed clear is drained where it is at the pump.
Thurlestone, at home: AdBlue in the diesel tank
Several days had passed with the dash light on. Only at the recycling bin, the empty bottle in your hand, did you look back at the cap you'd used at the drive. It happens on driveways just off Eddystone Road as often as anywhere.
Meaning? As long as the car has not been driven since, it's second to the pump case. On the bottom of your tank is exactly where AdBlue stays, because it will not blend with diesel — and a night going by makes no difference.
Next: stop any early-morning drive by putting your keys indoors, then ring us. Your drive is where it gets emptied, be it around Thurlestone or Bantham. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving around Thurlestone?
Filled up, drove away, and soon the motor was running unevenly, smoking, losing power, or lighting up your dash. Maybe it was on Warren Road, possibly on the way out towards Plymouth, under 15 miles away.
The point: the system has pulled AdBlue through by now. Distance sets how deep it gets: filter and lines to begin with, then the injection pump and each injector. Each restart, like each mile, pushes it deeper.
Your move: pull up somewhere safe, then turn your motor off. Thurlestone sits under 50 miles from the M5; on it, come off at the next junction instead of pushing on to the services. No trial restarts: clearing itself is not something AdBlue will do. Call, and say what distance your car went.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company motors
It is a car you have had for a week. The AdBlue filler is right alongside the diesel one, which you didn't know, since your own car either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Wherever you happen to be around Devon, every motorist can slip up.
Put simply: an extra step on top of the cases above, which depend on whether it's run. The owner frequently has to approve any work, under plenty of hire and fleet contracts.
Do this: hire firm or your fleet manager first, us second, since sorting it beforehand saves time. Keep the vehicle switched off as the reply comes, whether you're parked at Ivybridge or near War Memorial.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Thurlestone?
Now and then, "I think so" is all anyone can honestly say. Lighter, the bottle; a hint of ammonia round the filler; a hazy recollection of which cap. Look familiar? Perhaps it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Thurlestone All Saints Church of England Academy, or on a friend's drive in South Huish.
The upshot: the motor isn't harmed by a little AdBlue splashed on the outside. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. Any AdBlue in the tank will be sucked in by firing up the car, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
Take it that it got in, and don't turn your key. Describe what you noticed on the phone. A clean tank looked at counts as a happier result than a run one drained.
The common ground in every Thurlestone AdBlue drain
The work begins the same way, whichever the situation. Wherever the car is — The Village Inn's car park, a street by All Saints, a driveway, a forecourt — the van gets there and we ask for the liquid, the quantity, and whether the motor has turned over. Over the phone, before anything else, you hear the price, and those answers decide the job too.
A thorough flush comes after this drain. With petrol it is standard; with AdBlue it is crucial, since deposits build up and some metals corrode, and neither washes away unaided. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Where your engine hasn't run, allow about half an hour on site, in most jobs.
The final step is firing it up. With new diesel in, it runs while our engineers check it's running smoothly, and then we go. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it's spotted quickly, and the whole job is done where your car is. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, no money upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Thurlestone itself
Thurlestone is a small coastal village in Devon, situated near the towns of Bantham and Buckland, with South Milton to the north. Thurlestone sits at an elevation of 41 metres, overlooking the sea and surrounded by rolling hills. Thurlestone has a population of around 566 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Thurlestone is located 14.1 miles from Plymouth and 183.8 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Thurlestone and across Devon
Thurlestone is a coastal village, and the same teams that cover it work the towns around it too, Buckland and South Milton among them, across the TQ postcode area. Giving us your TQ7 3 postcode finds you fastest of all.
No moving is needed, whether stopped centrally in Thurlestone or on a lay-by heading to Thurlestone Hotel Golf Course, so keep it put. The drain happens right there. Phone and ask rather than guess if you are close to Thurlestone Village Hall, on a border, or somewhere awkward to explain.
The one-line version
Motor not started: ring, and leave it alone. Run already: stop, switch down, phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, within Thurlestone or wherever across Devon.