Wawcott: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
Everything turns on a single detail: whether the motor has started since the AdBlue was added — more than anything else. Not run so far? Then keep it like that, wherever your car sits — Wawcott or Kintbury. Phone 0333 366 0103 with the ignition and engine both off. In Wawcott, that is generally emptied and cleaned on the spot. Already started? Pull over when you safely can, then turn it off. A larger job, yes, yet the identical opening step.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever across Berkshire it happened.
On a Wawcott forecourt with AdBlue in a diesel
Just at this point, nozzle yet in hand, it dawns on you that the cap you took off was the wrong one, there at the pump. It could be the Shell, or perhaps the Asda, or another forecourt around Wawcott.
In short: there is no better spot to be to discover it. Only your tank has AdBlue; no component beyond it has drawn it in.
Next: avoid the temptation to fire it up just to free up the petrol pump. Ring us from the forecourt after your vehicle is in a bay — the attendants will help roll it — and keep the bottle. Our equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt, and so a car that can't be pushed away is cleared where it is at the petrol pump.
At home around Wawcott with AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the dash, a reminder had been lit 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 once more at the cap. It takes place on drives just off Elcot Lane as regularly as anywhere.
The upshot: no miles since leaves this almost equal to finding it at the petrol pump. At the floor of your tank sits exactly where AdBlue waits, because it will not mix with diesel — and a night passing makes no difference.
Next: keys in the house, so nobody drives the car anywhere first thing. Then, ring. Our technicians drain the car on your drive, whether that's in Wawcott or out in Elcot. Even at night, the pumps are quiet enough for a driveway.
On the road in Wawcott with AdBlue in a diesel
Lumpy running, smoke, falling power or a lit dashboard started a mile or two after the top-up. Maybe driving for Oxford, under 25 miles away, or simply along Station Road.
What it means: the system has drawn the AdBlue in. Through the filter, through the pipework, and — the more the mileage — deeper into the injection pump and every injector. Every restart, like each mile, pushes it deeper.
Next: pick a safe place, pull in, then turn your engine off. Wawcott lies under 3 miles from the M4; there, come off at the first junction instead of pushing on to the services. No trial starts: clearing is not something AdBlue does. Call, and say what distance the vehicle went.
A hire or company car with AdBlue in the wrong tank?
You've had this car barely a week. On your own vehicle, AdBlue is missing or elsewhere. On this one, its cap is right next to the diesel cap — news to you. Wherever you happen to be across Berkshire, every motorist can slip up.
Meaning? Whatever case above counts here — run or unrun — and one further stage. Plenty of hire and fleet contracts need the owner's approval before repairs.
Next: phone the rental company or your fleet manager first, then us — settling it before our arrival is quicker. Keep the vehicle off as the reply arrives, even if you're waiting at Kintbury or close to Kintbury.
Not sure it was AdBlue in the diesel tank, Wawcott?
Truthfully, the best answer might be that you think it did. Lighter, that bottle; a hint of ammonia near your filler; no clear recollection of which cap. Look familiar? Maybe at a friend's driveway in Clapton, or in a rush outside Kintbury St Mary's C.E. Primary School on the school run.
In short: a spill round the filler leaves your engine no harm. A diesel tank with AdBlue inside is a different story. You can't tell which by turning the ignition, and doing so will suck in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Do this: act as though it got in, and never start your motor. Inspecting a tank that turns out free of AdBlue beats draining one after it has been run — so phone then describe to us what you saw.
What each AdBlue drain in Wawcott has in common
Each case has the same opening to the job. Three questions are asked once our technicians reach your car — at a filling station, a drive, a street by Parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Kintbury or the car park at The Halfway Inn: the liquid, the quantity, and whether the motor has run. Those answers settle this work, and you hear the price on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then that tank is drained and your 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. Last are your filter, cleaned or renewed as needed; clean diesel; and a test of your vehicle. Never started? In that case roughly half an hour on site is most jobs.
Starting it comes last. With fresh diesel in, it runs while our engineers check it is running correctly, and then we head off. Permanent damage is very uncommon when it's caught soon, and the entire job is done where the vehicle is. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment on the day, no money upfront. Check your insurance while we arrive: cover for misfuelling is built into many policies.
About Wawcott
Wawcott is a small locality in Berkshire, situated on the banks of a river at an elevation of around 100 metres. Wawcott lies near the villages of Elcot and Halfway, and is within commuting distance of Oxford, which is approximately 24 miles away. Wawcott has a population of around 549 people, predominantly living in detached houses. Wawcott is also relatively close to London, being about 56 miles west of the city.
AdBlue drains round Wawcott and across Berkshire
Throughout RG postcodes, the vans covering Wawcott — a small village — work nearby towns as well, Halfway and Hoe Benham among them. The whereabouts comes quickest from a postcode beginning RG20 8.
Central Wawcott or a lay-by towards Kennet Valley Alderwoods: wherever it is, the car never needs to shift an inch for this drain. Wherever it sits, that is where it gets emptied. Assuming won't help beside Kintbury War Memorial, on a county line or anywhere hard to describe; ring and check.
Your scenario, in one line
Still unrun? Leave the car off then phone. Run already: stop, switch down, ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, in Wawcott or anywhere in Berkshire.