Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Allens Green: Why It Happens
Keep the engine and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 first — the rest can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. In Allens Green, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves draining and a full flush where it stands. Here before the event? Then the rest covers how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the motor — but many newer diesels seen about Allens Green and Rosemaryhill hold a second fluid as well. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Some vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others place the two together behind one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. Much less often, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur in Allens Green?
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Sperry Close before work, or in the car park outside White Lion heading home: that is where the hurried top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low the vehicle warns you, and if it's empty, limp mode kicks in.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Lastly, the bottle goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in just as readily, and once the tip starts, no part halts it. Whether it happens in Hanstubbin or the middle of Allens Green, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Alma or a forecourt around Allens Green, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap does not. AdBlue caps are often blue or carry the name "AdBlue" — diesel caps normally do not.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Check inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says which it lives if the filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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 outside Kirkby in Ashfield.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Nottinghamshire that is.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Mansfield Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- Both under a single flap? So confirm the lid on the diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting your car, close the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Stage five stays off limits.
Allens Green: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
The short order of things, starting with no starting your engine. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so don't switch it on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, another forecourt nearby or another — the staff will normally help push the vehicle clear, if you ask. If you are on your own drive in Allens Green, leave the car where it sits.
Where your motor has run already, pull over safely and turn the vehicle off. The next junction is where to come off if you're on the M1, under a mile from Allens Green. Roughly how far did it go? Crossing Allens Green is smaller a job than a trip of under 15 miles to Nottingham, and so tell us.
When our engineers turn up in Allens Green, what takes place?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Selston Church of England Infant and Nursery School, close to Selston Leisure Centre or on your own drive. The replies determine this work and the quote, and so our engineers ask what got in, about how much, and if it's run. During the call itself, you hear the quote — ahead of dispatch.
The system is then purged thoroughly, once your tank is drained. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and none of it washes away unaided, however long it sits. Testing comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed as needed. We do not go until it has been fired up and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour after we arrive, as long as the engine hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are fine on a busy forecourt yet quiet at night beside a house. Your insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Before we get there, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Allens Green
Allens Green is a suburban area in Nottinghamshire, situated approximately 10 miles from Nottingham and 119 miles from London, at an elevation of around 113 metres. Allens Green is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is located near other local places such as Hanstubbin and Inkerman. Allens Green has a population of around 2197 residents and is set within the inland landscape of the East Midlands. Allens Green forms part of the wider Nottingham urban area.
AdBlue drains round Allens Green, and Nottinghamshire beyond
As a residential suburb, Allens Green shares its vans surrounding areas — Inkerman, Dove Green — all the way through NG postcodes and the wider area beyond. Fastest of all: give a NG16 6 postcode to our van.
The car does not need to shift. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Selston Town Football Club & Selston Town Cricket Club, a side street near Selston Community Partnership Library: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Tin Hat Centre.
Allens Green drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere around Nottinghamshire: keep it off then phone 0333 366 0103.