AdBlue in the Diesel Tank in Winthorpe, and What to Do Next
What to do about AdBlue in a diesel tank comes down to one thing more than any other: if your engine has been run since it got in. Out in Seacroft or here around Winthorpe, an unrun engine should remain unrun. Switch nothing on, phone 0333 366 0103, then expect a thorough flush plus a drain, carried out right where your vehicle stands around Winthorpe. If it's run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. The job is bigger, yet the first step is the same.
Anywhere around Lincolnshire it took place, one of the situations below fits yours.
AdBlue in a diesel on a Winthorpe forecourt
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. It could be the Valero, or perhaps the Asda, or another station around Winthorpe.
The point: of all places to notice, the forecourt is the best. No pump has drawn it through, and so the AdBlue stays just in the tank.
Next: avoid the temptation to fire it up only to move away from the pump. A few things: a shove into a space with the staff assisting, the bottle saved, and a ring to us from where you stand. If it cannot be shifted, it can be cleared at the pump: the equipment is explosion-proof and safe on a busy forecourt.
Winthorpe, at home: AdBlue in the diesel tank
On your dash, a reminder had shown all week. A bottle bought at the shop, tipped in on the drive — and it was only by the recycling that the cap caught your eye. It occurs on drives just off Martin Way as regularly as anywhere.
In short: if your vehicle has not moved since, it is nearly as good as spotting it at the pump. At the floor of your tank is where AdBlue stays, since it won't blend with diesel — and a night passing makes nothing of the difference.
Keep the keys indoors tonight — otherwise someone might take it away at breakfast — and phone us. Seathorne or Winthorpe: whichever your drive sits, that's where it gets emptied. The pumps are quiet enough to use outside a house at night.
Drove off with AdBlue in a diesel in Winthorpe?
A mile or two after filling up, the engine started playing up: roughness, smoke, less power, lights on your dash. Jonathan Drive, say, or the route towards Lincoln — a trip of under 50 miles.
The point: your system has pulled AdBlue through already. The injection pump and each injector see it as well on a bigger trip, once your filter and pipework have it. It travels further with every extra mile covered and each restart.
Next: pick a sensible place, stop, and switch your engine off. Services farther along can wait: from the M180, under 50 miles out of Winthorpe, use the next junction. Starting it again to test gets nothing — AdBlue doesn't clear on its own. Roughly how far did it go? Tell us when you phone.
AdBlue in the wrong tank of a hire, lease or company car
It is a car you have had for a week. Unbeknown to you, the two fillers are side by side here — unlike your own vehicle, which has no AdBlue or stores it in another spot. Anywhere you happen to be around Lincolnshire, every motorist can be caught.
What it means: the same as the situations above, depending on whether it's run, with one more step. Any work on the car often needs the owner's go-ahead under rental or company terms.
What to do: call the hire firm or your fleet manager first, then us. That is quicker settled before our engineers arrive than after. Hanging on for an answer in the car park at Skegness, or beside Winthorpe Community Cente? Keep the engine off throughout.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, in Winthorpe
"I think so" is sometimes the most honest as it gets. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there is a faint smell of ammonia about the filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. The gates of Seathorne Primary Academy in a hurry, perhaps, or a friend's driveway over in Addlethorpe.
What it means: a little spilled about the filler does no harm to the engine. AdBlue inside your diesel tank does. If there is AdBlue in your tank, turning on your car would draw it in, and it wouldn't tell you which either.
Take it that it was put in, and never start the engine. Inspecting a tank that turns out clean beats emptying one once it has been run — so ring and tell us what you noticed.
Winthorpe: what every AdBlue drain has in common
Every case gets the same start to the job. Filling station, driveway, Garden City's car park or a road beside St. Mary — the van reaches your car, and three questions come next: what liquid, which amount, and if it ran. Answers set the job; the quote comes on the call whilst no one has left yet.
Then your tank is cleared and the system cleaned 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 does not rinse out on its own. Then comes the filter — flushed, or swapped when needed — then fresh diesel, and a test of your vehicle. Never started? Then roughly half an hour on site is most jobs.
Our technicians start the engine at the end. We confirm it runs properly on new diesel before we leave. When it's spotted soon, the vehicle very rarely has lasting damage, and the entire job happens where it is. Nothing is taken upfront, settlement happens on the day, and you get what your insurer wants: an engineer report plus a VAT invoice. Worth remembering: lots of insurers offer misfuelling cover, and so a check of your documents as you wait pays.
About Winthorpe itself
Winthorpe is a small suburban area located on the coast of Lincolnshire, with an elevation of approximately 3 metres above sea level. Winthorpe sits near the popular seaside resorts of Skegness and Ingoldmells, and is close to the village of Seathorne. Winthorpe has a population of around 2526 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Winthorpe is situated about 36.6 miles east of Lincoln and 116.1 miles north-east of London.
AdBlue drains around Winthorpe and across Lincolnshire
Being a residential suburb, Winthorpe has the same vans as the nearby places — Ingoldmells, Skegness — all the way through PE postcodes. The location comes clearest from a postcode that starts PE25 1.
Whether the vehicle is on a lay-by on the way to North Shore Golf Course or in a car park in the middle of Winthorpe, it does not need to move. The van empties it where it stands. Assuming doesn't help beside Skegness Water Leisure Park, close to a county line or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and check.
Your scenario, in one line
Engine never started: ring, leaving it switched off. Whichever case fits, Petrol in Diesel handles the rest on 0333 366 0103, across Lincolnshire and within Winthorpe — once you pull over, switch off and ring, if it's run.