Winkwell: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
Everything turns on a single detail: if the engine has started after the AdBlue was added — far more than anything else. If it hasn't, keep it that way, whether the car is in Winkwell itself or out in Bourne End. Usually this means draining and thoroughly rinsing it on the spot around Winkwell — so leave the key and engine off and call 0333 366 0103. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. It is a bigger job, though stage one does not change.
Find the scenario below that matches yours, wherever around Hertfordshire it happened.
At the pump around Winkwell: 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. Be it Middlesex and Herts Boat Services Fuel Pump, Gulf or anywhere else around Winkwell, the case is the same.
Meaning? Spotting it here is as good as it can be. Still inside the tank, with no fuel pulled onwards: that's where the AdBlue sits.
Next: avoid the urge to fire it up just to move away from the petrol pump. Ask the staff to help you roll your car into a parking bay, keep the receipt or the bottle, and call us from the forecourt. Can't move the car by the petrol pump? Explosion-proof equipment makes a live forecourt sensible, and so we can drain it in place.
Winkwell, at home: AdBlue in your diesel tank
The warning light had been on for days. Only by the recycling, the empty container in your hand, did you glance back at the cap you'd opened at the drive. It happens on drives just off Pouchen End Lane as regularly as anywhere.
The point: zero miles since makes it nearly as good to spotting it at the pump. As it is reluctant to mix, AdBlue drops to the base in the tank and waits. A night parked changes nothing.
Put your keys indoors tonight — or a person might drive it off first thing — then phone us. Your drive is where it is drained, whether in Winkwell or Pouchen End. Our equipment runs quietly enough not to disturb the neighbours at night.
AdBlue in a diesel and already driving in Winkwell?
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later the motor began to run roughly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Winkwell, say, or the way to St Albans — a run of under 10 miles.
The upshot: your system has drawn AdBlue through already. Through the fuel filter, through the pipework, and — the more the distance — deeper into the high-pressure pump and every injector. Each mile and each restart takes it further.
What to do: pull over where it is safe then switch off. On the M1, under 5 miles from Winkwell, that means the next junction, not the services further on. Don't restart the car to see if it has cleared; it will not have. Tell us know the mileage covered as you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
It's a vehicle you have had for a week. Your own motor either has no AdBlue or puts it elsewhere, so no one warned you the AdBlue inlet was just beside the diesel. Across Hertfordshire, nobody is safe from it.
Meaning? Whichever case above applies here — run or unrun — plus one extra stage. The owner frequently has to sign off any work, under many rental and fleet contracts.
What to do: ring the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That's faster settled before our technicians turn up than after. Keep it off while the answer comes, even if you are waiting at Hemel Hempstead or near Bourne End Village Hall.
Unsure about AdBlue in your diesel tank in Winkwell?
"I think so" is often the most honest answer there is. Too light, that bottle; a trace of ammonia near the filler; a hazy memory of which cap. Look familiar? Maybe it happened in a hurry at the school gates at Pixies Hill Primary School, or on a friend's drive in Green End.
The upshot: your engine is not hurt by some AdBlue spilled around the filler. Once it's inside your diesel tank, though, it does. You can't tell which by turning the ignition, and doing so would draw in any AdBlue that is in that tank.
Do this: behave as though it did, and don't start your motor. Phone and give what you saw: we'd sooner confirm a clean tank than empty one after your engine has been run.
The common ground in every Winkwell AdBlue drain
Whichever situation you are in, this job starts the same way. Three questions come once our technicians reach the car — on a filling station, a drive, a street by Snook's Grave or the car park at The Three Horseshoes: the fluid, the amount, and whether it has run. Those answers decide this work, and you hear the quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some metals used in fuel systems, and so it won't rinse out on its own; that's why the flush, after this drain, matters far more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and your car is tested. If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there.
Finally, our technicians start it. With fresh diesel in, it runs while our engineers make sure it's running correctly, and then we leave. If it is caught quickly, the car very seldom has lasting damage, and the entire job takes place where it is. For your insurer: the engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment on the day, nothing upfront. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Winkwell and where it is
Winkwell is a suburban area in Hertfordshire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 92 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type. Winkwell lies approximately 23.4 miles from London and 7.5 miles from the nearest city, St Albans. Winkwell is close to nearby places such as Pouchen End, Chaulden, and Westbrook Hay, and has a population of around 929 residents. Winkwell forms part of the wider suburban landscape of Hertfordshire, with its riverside setting being a notable feature.
AdBlue drains about Winkwell and across Hertfordshire
Winkwell is a residential suburb, and the same teams that cover it work the places near it too, Chaulden and Westbrook Hay among them, across the HP postcode area. Giving us your HP1 2 postcode finds you fastest of all.
Centre of Winkwell or a layby near Green Croft: either way it sits, your vehicle doesn't need to move at all for this drain. Our van empties it in place. Tricky to explain? By St Stephen or a border? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
Your situation, summed up
Unstarted? Keep the vehicle that way and ring. Whichever line applies, Petrol in Diesel handles from there on 0333 366 0103, across Hertfordshire and in Winkwell — after you pull over, turn off then phone, if it has run.