AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Allenton: Why It Happens and How to Stop It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a thorough flush, carried out right where the vehicle stands in Allenton, is usually all it needs when caught before the engine runs. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds the motor — yet many current diesels driven around Allenton and Crewton hold a second fluid as well. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into the exhaust stream and cleans it.
There is a filler on every tank. Plenty of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at every filling station visit, week in, week out. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
AdBlue in your diesel tank in Allenton: how it happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the car drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a driveway off Elm Wood Road before work, or in the car park outside The Crown on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — because a rental car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
No part halts the pour after 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, whether out in Derby War Memorial Village or bang in the centre of Allenton.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Allenton or a drive over in Shelton Lock. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Peartree? Ask the person who drove the car last before you set off, rather than when the light goes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Derbyshire that is.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Lord Street 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 your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car.
Find at the second or third step that the bottle went in the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Never go on to stage five.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Allenton?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch it on. Thinning it with extra diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base rather than blending — and that's where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — Esso, Sainsbury's or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the car away, if you ask. Your own driveway in Allenton is the place it should stay.
Already started? Pull over once it's safe, then turn off. On the M1, under 10 miles from Allenton, that means the next exit. A short hop across Allenton is a smaller job than a run towards Derby, under 3 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Allenton, and what happens next
Our technicians come to the vehicle wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Allenton Primary School, close to Henry Royce or on your own drive. What liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the answers decide the work and price. That quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then the tank is drained and the system rinsed thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once your filter is cleaned — or renewed, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally the car is tested. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs correctly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once we get there, provided your motor hasn't run — and the pumps our engineers use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. While we travel, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Allenton itself
Allenton is a locality in Derbyshire, situated approximately 2.6 miles southwest of Derby city centre, at an elevation of around 56 metres. Allenton is characterized by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock and is located near other localities such as Derby War Memorial Village and Osmaston. Allenton sits within the East Midlands region, about 110.8 miles northwest of London. Allenton has a population of around 1550 residents.
AdBlue drains around Allenton and across Derbyshire
Osmaston and Sinfin Moor are among the places around Allenton, a neighbourhood, that the same teams cover, over DE postcodes. A postcode starting DE24 9 gets the van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Elm Wood, a side street close to Moorways Sports Village and Water Park: our engineers drain the car where it sits. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Saint Martin's Methodist Church.
In short, for Allenton drivers
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank regardless, leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere around Derbyshire.