How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Anstey
Keep your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before your engine runs, it is usually a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Anstey. The rest of this page covers why it occurs and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — yet many modern diesels driven round Anstey and Groby hold another liquid too. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of cars share a single flap for the two, whereas some put the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side is topped up all the time. Far less regularly, the AdBlue side is topped up — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. That gap is where the mistake lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank take place in Anstey?
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Highfield Street before work, or in the car park outside Coach and Horses on the way home.
The old car's cap is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second thing: a new car.
No part stops 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. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Anstey or out in Beaumont Leys.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
A few seconds is all the checks take — so check them before you tip anything, on a driveway in Thurcaston or a forecourt in Anstey.
- Position misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally don't.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and look for a label — plenty of motors mark what goes in each inlet right there.
- Can't see it beside your diesel filler? Then check beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the owner's manual says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — if you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Leicester.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Leicestershire that is.
- Turn off once parked — level ground, motor stopped, and never in a rush beside Stadon Road on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. When the two sit under a flap, confirm it's shut before the bottle comes up.
- Finish once that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip gently through its built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, and check again — making sure the diesel filler stayed shut the whole time. Only then, start the car.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Anstey?
Do not start your motor: that's where the short order of things starts. Keep your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it alone starts the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to thin it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
The attendants at Tesco, Shell or any forecourt will normally help to push your car clear if asked. On your own drive around Anstey? Then the vehicle remains where it is.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. Anstey sits under 3 miles from the M1; there, use the first exit. Mileage matters — a short hop across Anstey is a smaller job than driving under 5 miles to Leicester — so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival in Anstey, and what takes place next
Our van reaches the vehicle wherever it stopped — your own drive, beside St Mary's Church Rooms, or outside The Latimer Primary School. Those answers determine this work and our price, and so our engineers ask what was put in, about how much, and whether it's run. No one heads out before you have heard our quote over the phone.
Then that tank is emptied and your system purged thoroughly. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears away unaided, however long it sits. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel is added, and your filter is cleaned or changed as needed. After that we fire it up and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job after arrival. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your policy; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Anstey itself
Anstey is a village situated on the riverside in Leicestershire, with a relatively low elevation of 67 metres. Anstey lies close to the city of Leicester, being only 3.5 miles away, and is near other places such as Beaumont Leys and Glenfield. Anstey has a population of approximately 3265 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Anstey is located in the East Midlands region, about 92.3 miles from London.
Anstey and Leicestershire: AdBlue drains across the area
As a village, Anstey shares its vans surrounding places — Glenfield, Cropston — right across LE postcodes and the wider area around them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting LE7 7.
No need to shift the vehicle. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to The Nook, a side street close to St Mary's Church: our technicians drain the car where it sits. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Anstey Library.
In short, for Anstey people
Read the cap before you tip. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, anywhere across Leicestershire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.