Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Acre: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, keep your ignition and motor off, and call 0333 366 0103. In Acre, finding it before the motor runs usually means draining and a full flush on the spot. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the why it happens and the ways to avoid it altogether.
AdBlue in a diesel motor, and its separate tank
Plenty of current diesels on the roads around Acre and Mumps carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Your exhaust, not the motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean them, from a separate tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. Far less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Acre: how it takes place
It's hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
On a drive off Rosedale Close before work, or in the car park at Lower House Inn heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and once it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the pour once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. It's a few seconds, be it out in Broadbent or bang in the heart of Acre.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Oldham Edge or a forecourt around Acre, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually do not.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Mills Hill.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere in Greater Manchester the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Turn off after you park — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush by Sydenham Street at the roadside.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, yet it works.
- Both under one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side stays shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, then check again — making sure the diesel cap stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Leave out step five entirely.
Acre: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to dilute it.
At a forecourt — Texaco, Tesco or any other — the staff will normally help roll your car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Acre.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. On the A627(M), under 3 miles from Acre, that means the next exit. About how far did it go? Hopping across Acre is smaller work than a run of under 10 miles to Manchester, so say.
Our arrival in Acre, and what happens next
By Mayfield Primary School, close to St Stephen & All Martyrs or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and our quote rest on three replies — which liquid, which amount, and whether it has run — so our engineers ask. On the phone call itself, you hear the price — before dispatch.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter cleaned or, where needed, swapped; clean diesel in; then a test of the vehicle. We don't leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet after dark outside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Misfuelling cover is included in many insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to check yours.
About Acre and where it is
Acre is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Medlock and characterised by its terraced housing stock. Acre sits at an elevation of 211 metres, overlooking the surrounding landscape. Acre is located close to several nearby places, including Broadbent, Lower Moor, and Higginshaw, and is approximately 7.9 miles from Manchester city centre.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Acre included
Being a residential suburb, Acre has the same vans as nearby places — Lower Moor, Higginshaw — right across OL postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting OL1 4 gets the van to you fastest.
The car stays put. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Neon Hub, a lay-by on the way to Stoneleigh Park, a driveway. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Watersheddings Rugby Ground, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Acre motorists, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere in Greater Manchester.