What Now? AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Winterborne St Martin
Has your motor run since the AdBlue went in? This one point settles almost everything about what comes next. Anywhere your vehicle is — Winterbourne Abbas, Winterborne St Martin — don't run an engine that has not been started yet. Keep nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, and expect a thorough flush plus a drain, carried out just where the vehicle sits in Winterborne St Martin. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. A larger job, yes, but the same opening move.
Compare what happened to a situation from the ones below, anywhere across Dorset you happen to be.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Winterborne St Martin forecourt
You are at the pump, the nozzle or the bottle still in your hand, and you have just noticed the cap you opened was the wrong one. Possibly you are at the Esso, possibly at the Tesco, possibly somewhere else around Winterborne St Martin.
The upshot: of every spot to notice, this is the best. Still in your tank, and nothing pulled onwards: that is where the AdBlue is.
What to do: do not get back in and fire it up to clear the pump. Have the staff to help pushing it into a space, hold on to the receipt, then phone us right there. The equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt, and so a vehicle that can't be pushed away is drained where it is at the petrol pump.
AdBlue in your diesel tank at home in Winterborne St Martin
On your dash, a warning had been lit for days. Picked up a bottle, tipped it in outside the house, binned the empty — and only then checked the cap again, after the fact. Houses just off Blagdon Close are caught out as often as everywhere else.
In short: if your vehicle has not moved since, it is nearly equal to finding out at the forecourt. AdBlue does not mix with diesel; it sinks to the bottom of that tank and waits there. Overnight does not change that.
Put the keys in the house overnight — or someone might drive it off first thing — then call us. Rew or Winterborne St Martin: whichever your drive is, that's where it is emptied. Even at night, our pumps are quiet enough for a residential street.
Drove off with AdBlue in a diesel in Winterborne St Martin?
A short way after topping up, the engine started misbehaving: roughness, smoke, less power, warnings on your dash. Burnside, say, or the way to Wells — a run of under 50 miles.
In short: the AdBlue has been pulled through the system. It has been through your filter and the fuel lines and, the further you went, into your high-pressure pump and the injectors. It goes further with every extra mile covered and every restart.
Next: pick a safe place, stop, then turn the engine off. On the M5, under 50 miles from Winterborne St Martin, that means the next exit, not the services further on. No test restarts: clearing is not something AdBlue does. Ring us and say how far you drove.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company cars
It's a motor you have had for a week. Your own vehicle either does without AdBlue or keeps it elsewhere, so nothing told you the AdBlue cap was just next to your diesel. It can happen to anyone, anywhere across Dorset.
What it means: the same as the situations above, depending on whether it's run, with one more stage. Plenty of hire and company agreements want the owner to approve work on your car.
Next: phone the rental company or your fleet manager first, and then us — sorting it before our arrival is quicker. Waiting for an answer at the car park outside Dorchester West, or near Martinstown Village Hall? Leave the car off throughout.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, around Winterborne St Martin
"I think so" is sometimes as honest as it gets. A slight ammonia-like smell lingers around the filler, the bottle seems too light, and which cap came off is hard to recall. A rushed top-up by the gates of Winterbourne Valley Church of England Aided First School, or a visit to a friend in Poundbury: either fits.
What it means: a little spilled around your filler does no harm to your engine. The diesel tank with AdBlue inside is another matter. You can't tell which by turning the ignition, and doing so will pull in any AdBlue that is in your tank.
What to do: treat it as if it was put in. Don't crank it. Ring and give the details: we'd sooner confirm a tank free of AdBlue than empty one once your engine has been run.
The common ground in each Winterborne St Martin AdBlue drain
Whichever scenario you are in, the job starts the same way. Wherever the car stands — Brewers Arms's car park, a street by St Martin, a driveway, a filling station — the van gets there and asks about the liquid, the quantity, plus whether the motor has been run. Replies set the job; the price comes by phone while nobody has set off yet.
Draining that tank comes next, followed by a full flush — more vital after urea than with petrol, since crystals and corrosion will not go by themselves, however long you wait. Clean diesel is put in once the fuel filter has been cleaned or replaced, and the car is finally checked. Not started? Then about half an hour once we are there is most jobs.
Finally, our technicians start the car. With fresh diesel in, it runs while our technicians confirm it's running correctly, and then we head off. Permanent damage is very rare when it is caught quickly, and the whole job is done where the vehicle is. Nothing is taken upfront, payment happens on the day, and you get what the insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Many policies include misfuelling, and so look at yours while the van travels.
About Winterborne St Martin
Winterborne St Martin is a village in Dorset, situated near the River Winterbourne and surrounded by rolling hills. Winterborne St Martin has a mix of old and new housing, with detached homes being the predominant type, and is close to nearby places such as Rew and Hardy Country Park. Winterborne St Martin sits at an elevation of 83 metres, with views of the surrounding countryside, and is located near Winterbourne Steepleton. Winterborne St Martin is a small community, with a population of approximately 734 residents, and is about 117 miles from London.
AdBlue drains in Winterborne St Martin, and across Dorset too
Winterborne St Martin is a village, and the same teams that cover it work the towns near it too, Hardy Country Park and Winterbourne Steepleton among them, across the DT postcode area. Fastest of all: a DT2 9 postcode to show where you stand.
Whether your car is on a lay-by on the way to Kit Hill Coppice or in a car park in the middle of Winterborne St Martin, it does not need to move. Our van drains it in place. If you are somewhere hard to explain, close to Clandon Barrow or close to a boundary, ring and ask instead of guessing.
The one-line version
Where it has not started, ring then leave it that way. Run already: stop, power down, phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel handles the remainder, within Winterborne St Martin or anywhere across Dorset.