Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Alwoodley Gates: Why It Happens
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? Then set this page down for now, keep your ignition and motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. Around Alwoodley Gates, finding it before the engine turns normally leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Many newer diesels on the roads about Alwoodley Gates and Alwoodley Park carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to the engine. AdBlue's own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Each tank has its own filler. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in your boot or under the bonnet. Filling the diesel side at the pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs around Alwoodley Gates
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from the vehicle, and letting it run out leads to limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Wigton Lane, perhaps at The Lord Darcy on the way home that evening.
The old car's filler is where your hand reaches — but a rental car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That is the second factor: a strange car.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It's seconds, be it out in Alwoodley or bang in the centre of Alwoodley Gates.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a drive in Moortown or a forecourt in Alwoodley Gates.
- Read the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many cars have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The previous driver will know. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — at Headingley's car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
Wherever in West Yorkshire the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Harrogate Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the car, close the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That is where you stop. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Alwoodley Gates?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Keep the ignition off as well, because on plenty of diesels it by itself runs your fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at Asda, BP or another forecourt will normally help pushing your car clear when asked. If you are on your own driveway in Alwoodley Gates, leave the car where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if your engine has already run. Come off the A58(M) — under 5 miles out of Alwoodley Gates — at the first junction. Roughly how far did it go? Hopping across Alwoodley Gates is smaller work than a trip of under 5 miles to Leeds, and so say.
When our engineers turn up in Alwoodley Gates, what takes place?
The van comes to the vehicle wherever it has come to rest — your own drive, near Wigton Moor Marker, or by Wigton Moor Primary School. Which liquid was put in, the amount, and if it ran: we ask because the replies set both work and price. The price comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
The fuel system is then purged thoroughly, once that tank is emptied. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, some metals are attacked, and none of it clears away unaided, no matter how long it is left. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; and then a test of the car. Before we leave, our technicians start it and make sure that it is running smoothly.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Payment happens on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. It's worth looking at your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies.
About Alwoodley Gates, for a moment
Alwoodley Gates is a suburban area located on the outskirts of Leeds, situated near the River Aire in West Yorkshire. Alwoodley Gates sits at an elevation of 142 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Alwoodley Gates is close to nearby places such as Alwoodley, Slaid Hill, and Camp Town, and is approximately 4.3 miles from Leeds city centre.
AdBlue drains across West Yorkshire, Alwoodley Gates included
As a residential suburb, Alwoodley Gates has the same vans as surrounding places — Slaid Hill, Camp Town — all the way through LS postcodes and the wider area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting LS17 8.
The car stays put. The drain happens right there, whether a driveway, a road by Headrow Gallery, or a layby towards Wigton Woods. If you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Wigton Moor United Reformed Church, ring and ask instead of assuming.
Alwoodley Gates drivers: the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it sits, anywhere around West Yorkshire.