Alma: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Alma. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Alma and Selston Common carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Every tank comes with one filler of its own. Some vehicles put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes normally fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. That gap is where the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Alma: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Alma Road before work, or in the car park at White Lion heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode kicks in.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Alma or out in Inkerman.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Alma or a driveway out in Allens Green. Seconds, that's all.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap usually is not. Read it instead of going by position.
- On many cars, size gives it away: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Check for it.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Kirkby in Ashfield.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere around Nottinghamshire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time in hand — never rushing on the side of St Michaels View.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The two under one flap? So confirm the lid on your diesel side stays closed before lifting the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Find during the second or third step that AdBlue went into the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Stage five stays out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Alma already?
Don't start the engine: that is where the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off too, since on plenty of diesels it alone runs the pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
On a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Gulf or any other — the staff will normally help push the car clear, if you ask. On your own drive around Alma? So the car remains put.
Already started? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. On the M1, under a mile from Alma, that means the next exit. Distance counts — a short hop across Alma makes a smaller job than driving under 10 miles to Nottingham — so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our technicians turn up in Alma
Wherever your car has stopped, be it outside Bagthorpe Primary School, near Selston Church of Christ or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Those replies decide this work and our quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. No one sets off before you've heard the price over the phone.
After that: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own. Your filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to be sure it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run take roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. 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 policy; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Alma
Alma is a suburban area in Nottinghamshire, situated on the riverside with an elevation of around 132 metres. Alma lies approximately 9.7 miles from Nottingham and 118.5 miles from London, placing it in a commuter belt with easy access to major cities. Alma is characterised by its predominantly detached housing stock, reflecting its residential nature. Alma is near other local places such as Inkerman, Hanstubbin, and Woodnook.
AdBlue drains across Nottinghamshire, Alma included
Throughout NG postcodes, our teams covering Alma — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Woodnook and Hanstubbin among them. Fastest of all: give a NG16 6 postcode to the van.
The vehicle doesn't need to move. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Hills, a side street near Selston Leisure Centre: our technicians drain the vehicle where it sits. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Selston Community Partnership Library? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so phone.
In short, for Alma drivers
First, the cap; after that, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep it switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Nottinghamshire.