Tunstall: 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 the motor has been run since it got in. Anywhere your vehicle stands — Hillview, Tunstall — never run an engine that hasn't been started yet. Normally this is draining and properly cleaning it right there around Tunstall — and so keep the key and motor off and ring 0333 366 0103. When the motor has run, stop somewhere safe straight away, then turn the car off. The job is bigger, yet the first stage is the same.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever across Tyne and Wear it happened.
Tunstall forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
Only at this point, bottle yet in your hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, right at the pump. Be it Morrisons, Sainsbury's or anywhere else around Tunstall, the situation is identical.
Meaning? Finding out here is as good as it can be. The AdBlue is in that tank and nowhere else. Nothing has drawn it in.
What to do: do not get back in and start the car to clear the petrol pump. Ask the attendants to help you roll the vehicle into a parking bay, keep your receipt or the bottle, then phone us from the forecourt. If it can't be moved, it can be drained at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt.
AdBlue in the diesel tank on a Tunstall drive?
For days the dashboard had been warning you. Picked up a container, tipped it in at home, binned the empty — and only then looked at the cap again, too late. Homes just off Merryweather Rise are hit as often as everywhere else.
Put simply: if your vehicle has not been driven since, it is nearly equal to spotting it at the pump. Diesel and AdBlue keep apart: the AdBlue settles to the floor of your tank and remains there, however long it waits.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so no one moves your car in the morning. Then ring. Our technicians drain the vehicle on your driveway, whether that's in Tunstall or out in New Silksworth. Even at night, the pumps stay quiet enough for a driveway.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving around Tunstall?
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later your engine began to run roughly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Merrywather Rise, say, or the way towards Sunderland — a trip of under 3 miles.
Meaning? Your fuel pump has taken the AdBlue in. It's been through the filter and the lines and, the further you went, into your high-pressure pump and the fuel injectors. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so and switch off. On the A1(M), under 10 miles from Tunstall, that means the next junction, not the services further on. Starting it again to test gets nothing — AdBlue doesn't clear itself. Tell us know the distance covered when you ring.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
It is a vehicle you have had for a week. Your own car either has no AdBlue or puts it somewhere different, so nothing warned you the AdBlue cap was just beside your diesel. Any driver, anywhere across Tyne and Wear, could do the same.
What it means: the same as the situations above, depending on whether it has run, with one more stage. Plenty of hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on the vehicle.
Sorting it before the van turn up is faster, and so phone the rental company or your fleet manager, and then us. Stranded by St Leonard's RC or outside Sunderland until the firm answers, the car remains switched off throughout.
Not sure it was AdBlue in your diesel tank, Tunstall?
Occasionally the honest answer is "I think so". Which cap came off, you can't recall; meanwhile the bottle weighs lighter than expected, and ammonia lingers by the filler. A rushed top-up by the gates of St Leonard's Catholic Primary School, Silksworth, or a call to a friend in Burdon: both fits.
The upshot: your engine is not hurt by some AdBlue spilled on the filler. If it is inside the diesel tank, though, that changes. You can't tell which by turning the ignition, and doing so would pull in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Next: act as though it got in, then keep your engine off. Phone and give the details: we'd rather find a clean tank than empty one once the motor has run.
Tunstall: what every AdBlue drain has in common
Whatever the situation, one opening applies. Wherever your vehicle stands — Silksworth Working Mens Club's car park, a street beside St Matthew's, a driveway, a forecourt — our van arrives and we ask about the fluid, the amount, plus whether the engine has been run. Those replies determine this work, and you get the price by phone, before anybody heads out.
Draining the tank comes next, followed by a careful flush — more important after urea than after petrol, since crystals and corrosion won't go on their own, no matter how long it sits. Finally are your filter, cleaned or replaced if necessary; clean diesel; and a check of your car. Most unstarted cars are a half-hour job from the moment our technicians get there.
Our technicians fire it up at the end. With clean diesel in, it runs while our technicians make sure it's running smoothly, and then we go. The entire job is done where your car is, and if it's caught quickly, permanent damage is very rare. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Plenty of policies include misfuelling, so look at yours while the van travels.
About Tunstall
Tunstall is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, situated near the coast. Tunstall sits at an elevation of around 95 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Tunstall is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, with nearby places including New Silksworth and Silksworth. Tunstall is approximately 2.1 miles from Sunderland city centre, making it a convenient residential location.
AdBlue drains across Tyne and Wear, Tunstall included
Sourmilk Hill and Silksworth get the same teams as Tunstall, a residential suburb, plus other towns over SR postcodes. A postcode starting SR3 2 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Whether the car is on a lay-by on the way to Tunstall Village Green or in a car park in the middle of Tunstall, it doesn't need to move. The drain is done on the spot. Awkward to explain? By Ryhope Pentecostal Church or a county line? Checking beats guessing, so phone.
In one line: your scenario
Not run yet: keep the vehicle off then call. Already run: stop, switch off then ring. Either way, Petrol in Diesel takes it from there around Tunstall and anywhere across Tyne and Wear on 0333 366 0103.