Whitehouse Common: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
Has the engine turned over since the AdBlue got in? This single question decides nearly everything else from here. Out in Moor Hall or here in Whitehouse Common, an unstarted motor must remain unrun. Phone 0333 366 0103 with the key and engine both off. In Whitehouse Common, that is generally drained and flushed on the spot. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The job is bigger, but the first step is the same.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever around West Midlands it happened.
Whitehouse Common forecourt: AdBlue in a diesel at the pump
Only at this point, nozzle yet in hand, you realise that the cap you opened was the wrong one, right at the pump. Possibly you are at the Esso, perhaps at the JET, maybe somewhere else around Whitehouse Common.
In short: no better place exists to spot it. Just that tank has AdBlue; no component beyond it has taken it in.
Do this: keep out of the driver's seat, however much the pump needs freeing. Ask the staff to help you roll your car into a parking spot, keep the receipt or the bottle, and call us from the forecourt. Draining it right at the petrol pump is fine when it can't be shifted, because the equipment is explosion-proof.
AdBlue in your diesel tank at home in Whitehouse Common
Days had passed with the warning light on. A bottle bought at the garage, tipped in on the drive — and it was only at the recycling that the cap caught a second look. It takes place on driveways just off Poplar Avenue as regularly as anywhere.
The upshot: zero miles since leaves it nearly equal to finding it at the petrol pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of that tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
Your move: the keys indoors, and so no one takes your car off first thing. Then, ring. Falcon Lodge or Whitehouse Common: whichever your drive sits, that's where it gets drained. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house after dark.
On the road in Whitehouse Common with AdBlue in a diesel
A mile or two after filling up, your motor started playing up: roughness, smoke, less power, warnings on the dash. Arthur Gunby Close, perhaps, or the route to Birmingham — a trip of under 10 miles.
What it means: your fuel system has drawn the AdBlue in. It has been through the fuel filter and the lines and, the further you went, into the high-pressure pump and the injectors. It travels further with every extra mile covered and each restart.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so and switch off. Service stations farther along can wait: from the M6 Toll, under a mile out of Whitehouse Common, take the first junction. It will not have cleared, and so there is no point starting it again to find out. Roughly how far had it gone? Say so when you phone.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
A week back, the car was new to you. Unbeknown to you, the AdBlue and diesel inlets sit next to each other here — unlike your own car, which has no AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere. Across West Midlands, no one is safe from it.
Meaning? Whichever applies above counts here — run or not — and one further step. Many hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on your car.
Your move: rental firm or fleet manager first, us next, since settling it early cuts time. Stranded near St Chads Church or outside Sutton Coldfield until the firm replies, your car remains turned off the whole time.
Not sure it was AdBlue in your diesel tank, Whitehouse Common?
"I think so" is sometimes as honest answer there is. What cap was taken off, you cannot say; meanwhile the bottle feels less than expected, and ammonia hangs by the filler. The gates of Whitehouse Common Primary School in a rush, perhaps, or a friend's drive over in Four Oaks Park.
Meaning? Spills around the filler don't reach your motor at all. If it's inside your diesel tank, though, it does. Any AdBlue in your tank would be sucked in by starting your car, and the start wouldn't settle which it is in any case.
What to do: treat it as if it went in. Do not fire it up. 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.
Every AdBlue drain around Whitehouse Common shares these steps
Each situation gets the same start to the job. Three questions come when our technicians arrive — at a forecourt, a driveway, a street by Ashfurlong Hall or the car park at The White Horse: the liquid, the amount, and if it has been started. Answers set the job; the quote comes by phone whilst no one has set off yet.
Then the tank is cleared and your system rinsed 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 doesn't rinse out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after your filter has been flushed or changed, and the car is then checked. Where the engine has not run, allow roughly half an hour on site, in most cases.
The last step is firing it up. Before our technicians go, it's tested to make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel. The whole job is done where the car is, and when it's noticed soon, permanent damage is very uncommon. 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, and so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Whitehouse Common itself
Whitehouse Common is a suburban area in the West Midlands, situated near the River Tame and close to the cities of Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield. Whitehouse Common has a mix of housing types, but semi-detached homes are the most prevalent, and it is located near other residential areas such as Falcon Lodge and Reddicap Heath. Whitehouse Common sits at an elevation of around 139 metres, and its proximity to Birmingham makes it a popular choice for commuters. Whitehouse Common is also within easy reach of the countryside, with several parks and green spaces nearby.
AdBlue drains round Whitehouse Common and across West Midlands
Throughout B postcodes, the vans covering Whitehouse Common — a residential suburb — work nearby places too, Reddicap Heath and Doe Bank among them. A postcode starting B75 6 is the quickest way to tell us where you are.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Spinney or in a car park in the middle of Whitehouse Common, it does not need to move. The van drains it where it stands. Phone and ask rather than guess if you're close to Falcon Lodge Methodist Church, on a border, or anywhere awkward to explain.
The one-line version
Not run yet: keep it off then ring. Run already? Stop, turn off, ring. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder whatever case, in Whitehouse Common and West Midlands, on 0333 366 0103.