Woodham: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Find Your Situation
All of it turns on a single fact: whether the motor has started since the AdBlue was added — far more than anything else. Wherever your car stands — Windlestone, Woodham — don't start a motor that has not run yet. Switch nothing on, call 0333 366 0103, and count on a proper flush plus a drain, done just where your car sits in Woodham. If it has run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. It's a larger job, yet step one does not change.
Wherever in Durham it happened, one of the cases below fits yours.
At the petrol pump in Woodham: AdBlue in a diesel
Imagine it: standing by the pump, gripping the bottle, you realise the filler you took off wasn't the right one. It might be the JET, or perhaps the Tesco, or another forecourt in Woodham.
What it means: this is the best place to find out. Nothing has pulled it in, and so the AdBlue stays only in your tank.
Do this: keep out of the car, however much the pump wants clearing. Ask the staff to help you roll your car into a parking bay, keep your receipt or the bottle, then call us from the forecourt. The equipment is explosion-proof and fine on a busy forecourt, so a vehicle that cannot be pushed away is emptied where it is at the petrol pump.
Woodham, at home: AdBlue in the diesel tank
On the dash, a warning had shown for days. A bottle from the garage, tipped in at the drive — and it was just by the recycling that the cap caught a second look. Drives close to Windsor Close see it as much as any other street.
What it means: if you have not driven since, this is nearly as good as the forecourt. Being unable to mix, AdBlue settles low inside the tank and waits. A night parked alters none of that.
What to do: leave your keys inside the house so nobody moves the vehicle in the morning. Then ring. Our engineers drain it on your driveway, whether that's in Woodham or out in Woodham Village. Late-night clears outside a house are fine: the pumps are quiet.
On the road in Woodham with AdBlue in a diesel
You filled up, set off, and a mile or two later your engine began to run roughly, smoke, lose power or light up the dashboard. Maybe it was on Cheltenham Way, maybe on the way out towards Durham, under 15 miles away.
The point: the system has drawn AdBlue through by now. The injection pump and each injector get it as well on a longer trip, after the filter and lines have had it. Every restart, like each mile, carries it on.
What to do: pull over where it's safe to do so and switch off. On the A1(M), under 3 miles from Woodham, that means the next junction, not the services further on. No test restarts: clearing is not something AdBlue does. Roughly how far did it go? Tell us as you call.
AdBlue in the wrong tank: hire, lease and company cars
It's a motor you have had for a week. The AdBlue filler sits right beside the diesel filler, which you didn't know, since your own car either has no AdBlue or keeps it somewhere else. Anywhere you happen to be around Durham, any driver could be caught.
The upshot: exactly as above, split by if it ran, only with an added step. Any work on the car often requires the owner's go-ahead under rental or fleet agreements.
Next: ring the hire company or your fleet manager first, and then us — settling it before we arrive is faster. Stranded near St Elizabeth of Hungary or outside Newton Aycliffe until the firm answers, the car remains switched off throughout.
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Not sure, around Woodham
"I think so" is often the most honest as it gets. The bottle is lighter than it should be, there's a faint smell of ammonia round the filler, and you can't remember which cap you took off. A hurried top-up by the gates of Vane Road Primary School, or a visit to a friend in Preston-le-Skerne: both fits.
Put simply: a spill round the filler does the engine no harm. AdBlue inside the diesel tank does. Turning on the car will not tell you which, and if there is AdBlue in your tank it would draw it in.
Your move: act as if it did, and never start the engine. 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 in Woodham shares these stages
Whichever situation you are in, the job starts the same way. Our technicians come to the car, whether it is on a forecourt, a drive, the car park outside The Huntsman or a side street near St Mary's Catholic Church, and ask three things: what was put in, roughly how much, and if your engine has run. The price is given over the phone, before a van leaves, and the answers set the job.
Emptying the tank comes next, then a careful flush — more vital with urea than with petrol, because crystals and corrosion won't clear by themselves, however long you wait. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is flushed or replaced, and the car is finally tested. Never started? In that case about half an hour once we are there covers most jobs.
Firing it up comes at the end. We make sure it runs properly on new diesel before leaving. If it is noticed quickly, the vehicle very seldom has permanent damage, and the entire job takes place where it is. For your insurer: an engineer's report and the VAT invoice. For you: payment that day, no money in advance. Many policies include misfuelling, so look at yours while the van travels.
About Woodham itself
Woodham is a suburban area located on the riverside in County Durham, with an elevation of 81 metres. Woodham sits near the city of Durham, approximately 10 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Woodham Village and Newton Aycliffe. Woodham has a population of around 1566 people and is characterised by predominantly detached housing. Woodham is situated in the North East region of England, about 224 miles from London.
AdBlue drains round Woodham and across Durham
Woodham is a residential suburb, and the same vans that cover it work the towns around it too, Newton Aycliffe and Rushyford among them, across the DL postcode area. Telling us a DL5 4 postcode finds you quickest of all.
Whether the vehicle is on a lay-by on the way to Woodham Way or in a car park in the middle of Woodham, it does not need to move. Where it stands, that is where it is cleared. Guessing doesn't help near The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, close to a county line or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
Your situation, summed up
Unstarted? Keep the car that way then ring. Run by now: stop, power down, ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel takes over the remainder, within Woodham or wherever across Durham.