Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ambleside
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, carried out just where your car stands around Ambleside, is normally all it needs when caught before your motor runs. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one liquid but two: that's how plenty of modern diesels near Ambleside and Rydal carry, with diesel feeding your motor. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it goes to the exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
There's a filler for every tank. Plenty of cars have a single flap for the two, whereas others move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens constantly. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side gets filled — mostly from a bottle, by someone thinking about where it goes. It's in the gap that the error happens.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs around Ambleside
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Haste follows from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Rydal Road, or heading home in the car park outside The Sportsman's Inn.
Next, your hand goes for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new motor or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, once started, keeps on. How or the heart of Ambleside: it is the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a driveway in Little Loughrigg or a forecourt in Ambleside, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 at Windermere.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
The day the light goes on, anywhere in Cumbria, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Millans Park, not on a slope, not with your engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It does the trick.
- Both under a single flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel filler is still shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look again that the diesel cap never opened off.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Ambleside already?
Brief list, then. Top of that: the engine remains unstarted. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the base instead of mixing — and that's where the fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — BP, Shell or any other — the attendants will normally help push your car away, when you ask. Your own drive in Ambleside is the place it should stay.
When the engine has been run by now, pull over safely then turn it off. On the M6, under 15 miles from Ambleside, that means the next exit. A short hop across Ambleside is a smaller job than a run towards Lancaster, under 50 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
What happens when our engineers turn up in Ambleside
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether by Ambleside CofE Primary School, beside Market Cross or at home, the van travels to it. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it has run, because the replies settle this work and the quote. Nobody heads out before you have heard the quote over the phone.
The fuel system is then flushed thoroughly, after that tank is drained. 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 matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. We do not leave until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in about half an hour once our technicians arrive, as long as the motor hasn't run — and the pumps we use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet after dark beside a house. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Ambleside
Ambleside is a town situated on the riverside in Cumbria, with a population of around 2624 people. Ambleside sits at an elevation of 61 metres, near the towns of How, Waterhead, and Clappersgate. Ambleside is characterised by its predominantly terraced housing and is located approximately 27 miles from Lancaster. Ambleside is a popular destination due to its scenic location in the North West of England.
Ambleside and Cumbria: AdBlue drains across the area
Waterhead and Clappersgate are among the towns around Ambleside, a riverside town, that the same vans cover, over LA postcodes. Quote a postcode beginning LA22 9, and the van gets there quickest.
Shifting the vehicle isn't necessary. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Stockghyll Woods, a side street near Bridge House: our engineers drain the vehicle where it is. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Zeffirellis, ring and ask instead of assuming.
The short version for Ambleside drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you have read the cap. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever across Cumbria: keep the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.