Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Althorpe: Why It Happens
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the motor and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. Around Althorpe, finding it before your engine runs normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush where it stands. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to make sure it doesn't — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Many current diesels on the roads around Althorpe and Gunness carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into the exhaust stream to clean it.
Each tank comes with a filler of its own. On a lot of cars the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. At the pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between the two.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank happen around Althorpe?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
On a driveway off Main Street before work, or in the car park at the pub in the village on the way home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then your car is new. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
No part halts the tip once it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Burringham or the middle of Althorpe, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Althorpe forecourt or a drive out in East Butterwick, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Read the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue ones are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually are not.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside the nearest station, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
For the day the light appears — wherever it is across Lincolnshire — a routine to use.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Derrythorpe Road.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've located your filler and read the cap.
- The two behind one flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler is still closed ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Spot at step two or three that it's already gone into your diesel side? Then stop just there. Step five stays out.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Althorpe?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. The fuel pump starts on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where fuel is drawn from.
The staff at Tesco, Asda or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing your car away if you ask. At home in Althorpe? So your car stays put.
Already run? Pull over when it's safe, then turn off. Leave the M180 — under 3 miles out of Althorpe — at the next junction. A short hop across Althorpe is a smaller job than a run towards Doncaster, under 25 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we get there around Althorpe, what happens?
Wherever the car came to rest, be it by Althorpe and Keadby Primary School, near St Oswald or on your own drive, our van travels to it. Those answers decide this work and the price, so we ask what was put in, roughly how much, and whether it's run. That price comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of the system. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; fresh diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. After that we fire it up and check it runs properly before leaving.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once we arrive, as long as the motor has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a live forecourt and quiet at night beside a house. Payment is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the documents an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. Wrong-fuel cover is included in plenty of insurance policies — so use the wait to check yours.
About Althorpe, for a moment
Althorpe is a small village in Lincolnshire, situated on the banks of the River Trent at a low elevation of around 8 metres. Althorpe lies near the villages of Burringham and Derrythorpe, and is close to the town of Keadby. Althorpe has a population of approximately 298 people, living in predominantly detached housing. Althorpe is located near the city of Doncaster, which is around 16 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Lincolnshire, Althorpe included
Throughout DN postcodes, our vans covering Althorpe — a village — work the surrounding locations too, Keadby and Derrythorpe included. The van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting DN17 3.
The vehicle remains where it is. Draining happens right there, be it a driveway, a street by Burringham Village Hall, or a lay-by on the way to New Generation Park. Ring and ask instead of assuming if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Keadby & Althorpe Workingmen's Club.
The short version for Althorpe people
Before you tip, read the cap. AdBlue in your diesel tank regardless? Keep the car switched off and ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, throughout Lincolnshire.