Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ahoghill: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave your ignition and engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your car stands in Ahoghill, is usually all it needs if caught before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it happens and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor
Plenty of newer diesels around Grange Corner, like those in Ahoghill, run on two fluids; your engine gets only your diesel. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there a spray cleans the gas.
There's a filler for each tank. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both together under one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less often, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between them.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Ahoghill
It is seldom carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the vehicle, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Wallace Cottages, perhaps at the pub in the village on the way home after work.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it knew on the old vehicle — because a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
A spouted bottle finds no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once started, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Ahoghill or out in Gracehill.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Groggan or a forecourt around Ahoghill, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps usually do not.
- Plenty of motors fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and look for a label — many cars show which goes in each inlet just there.
- Cannot find it beside the diesel inlet? Then look below the bonnet or inside the boot — the handbook says where.
- The person who drove the car last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
Wherever across County Antrim the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, engine off, and never in a rush by B842 at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the vehicle, close the cap and check a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ahoghill already?
The short order of things, beginning with not starting your motor. Leave the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it alone starts your fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue sinks to the base rather than mixing — and that is where your fuel is drawn from.
If you are at a forecourt, whether it is the the nearest petrol station or the another forecourt nearby, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the petrol pump. Your own drive in Ahoghill is the place it stays.
When the motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe and switch the car off. On the M77, over 50 miles from Ahoghill, that means the next exit. A short hop across Ahoghill is a smaller job than a run towards Belfast, under 25 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers arrive in Ahoghill
Outside the local primary school, near the centre or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run, since the answers decide this work and our price. You hear that quote on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Your system is then rinsed thoroughly, once the tank is cleared. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it doesn't wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and make sure that it is running correctly.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Wrong-fuel cover is part of plenty of insurance policies — and so make use of the wait to look at yours.
About Ahoghill, for a moment
Ahoghill is a locality in County Antrim, situated inland at an elevation of 46 metres, approximately 24.7 miles northwest of Belfast. Ahoghill is characterized by its semi-detached housing and is located near the villages of Gracehill and Cullybackey. Ahoghill has a population of around 2336 people and is close to the town of Ballymena. Ahoghill is also relatively distant from London, at a distance of 346.3 miles.
Ahoghill and County Antrim: AdBlue drains across the area
Ahoghill is a small village, and the vans that cover it also work the places around it, Cullybackey and Ballymena among them, across the BT postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BT42 1.
The car doesn't need to move. Anywhere it sits — beside a street just off the centre, in a lay-by heading to the green space at the edge of the village, at home — that is where it gets drained. Ring and ask rather than assuming if you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of the far end of the built-up part.
The short version for Ahoghill motorists
Always, the cap; then, the tip. Even so AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it where it stands, wherever across County Antrim: keep it off then ring 0333 366 0103.