How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Arkwright Town
Stop here a minute when the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, and call 0333 366 0103. Around Arkwright Town, finding it before your engine turns usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. 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.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
No single liquid but two: that's how many newer diesels near Arkwright Town and Cock Alley carry, with diesel for the engine. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, where spraying treats the fumes.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Many of vehicles share a single flap for the two, whereas others put the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
Arkwright Town: how AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a driveway off Laurel Avenue, or heading home in the car park outside Arkwright Arms.
Unfamiliar motors come second, too. Rentals, new motors and company motors put their fillers differently, and habit goes for the cap it used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout fits: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as readily, and once the pour starts, nothing stops it. Bolehill or the heart of Arkwright Town: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Look at these first, on a forecourt in Arkwright Town or a driveway out in Inkersall Green. Seconds, no more.
- Where it sits misleads; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones are often blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many motors carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park at Chesterfield, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
When the light goes on, wherever in Derbyshire, use this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Lime Tree Grove, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only then, start your car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Step five is out.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Arkwright Town already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Do not switch your ignition on; on plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Don't top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where your fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the The Co-operative, the Shell or somewhere else. On your own drive in Arkwright Town? Then your car stays put.
Where your motor has run by now, pull over somewhere safe then switch it off. Leave the M1 — under 3 miles out of Arkwright Town — at the next exit. A short hop across Arkwright Town is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
When we arrive around Arkwright Town, what occurs?
The van reaches the car anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, near The Arkwright Centre, or by Arkwright Primary School. Both the work and the quote rest on three replies — what fluid, which amount, and whether it has run — so we ask. On the call itself, you hear our price — before dispatch.
Emptying the tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. A test is last: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or changed as needed. The engine is fired up next and checked to make sure it runs correctly, all before we head off.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job from the moment we arrive. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a residential street after dark. No money in advance; you settle up on the day. Afterwards, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for your insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Arkwright Town
Arkwright Town is a small village in Derbyshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 95 metres, approximately 11 miles from Sheffield. Arkwright Town has a population of around 697 people, with a predominance of semi-detached housing. Arkwright Town is located near other local places such as Bolehill, Long Duckmanton, and Inkersall, in the East Midlands region of England.
Arkwright Town and Derbyshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Arkwright Town is a rural village, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Long Duckmanton and Inkersall among them, across the S postcode area. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting S44 5.
The vehicle remains put. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Duckmanton Methodist Church, a lay-by on the way to Eastwood Park, a driveway. Assuming doesn't help at the back of St Peter, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
Arkwright Town motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will empty it wherever it stands, anywhere around Derbyshire: keep the vehicle off and ring 0333 366 0103.