Why It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Arthursdale
Leave your engine and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Normally, when the engine has not run, it is emptied and thoroughly cleaned where the car sits around Arthursdale. Reading before the event? Then the rest covers why it comes about and how to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Diesel goes to the motor — yet many current diesels driven around Arthursdale and Whinmoor carry another liquid too. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There is a filler on every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on each forecourt visit, again and again. The AdBlue side is topped up far less often, normally from a bottle, and usually by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the error happens.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur around Arthursdale?
Carelessness rarely causes it. What does is three things lining up together.
On a drive off Nook Gardens before work, or in the car park outside The Buffers heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car tells you, and once it's empty, limp mode follows.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it occurs in Scholes or the middle of Arthursdale, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, on a forecourt around Arthursdale or a drive out in Barwick in Elmet. A few seconds, no more.
- Colour and marking: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on plenty of cars, the AdBlue one.
- Look inside the fuel flap: plenty of motors have a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park outside Cross Gates, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and never in a rush by The Avenue at the roadside.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap remains on. Where both share a flap, confirm it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Stop when the tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, pour slowly using the own spout.
- Before starting the car, shut the cap and look a second time that the diesel cap was never opened off.
Stop there if you find, at step two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Never carry on to stage five.
Arthursdale: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your engine. The fuel pump starts on plenty of diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — so leave it off. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of the tank, right where fuel is taken from.
If you're at a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Tesco, ask the attendants to help push the vehicle away from the pump. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Arthursdale.
Already started? Stop when it's sensible, then switch off. The next exit means where to come off if you are on the M1, under 3 miles from Arthursdale. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Leeds, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Arthursdale.
Arthursdale: what occurs when our engineers arrive
By Scholes (Elmet) Primary School, near Scholes library or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run, since the replies settle the work and the price. On the call itself, you are told our price — before dispatch.
Then the tank is cleared and your system cleaned thoroughly. More than with petrol, it matters with AdBlue: the crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it sits. Filter cleaned or, if needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of the car. Before we leave, our engineers start it and make sure that it's running properly.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents your insurer wants: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. It is worth looking at your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Arthursdale itself
Arthursdale is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated near the River Aire and close to the city of Leeds. Arthursdale has a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities, with nearby places including Scholes and Sandhills. Arthursdale sits at an elevation of 106 metres, approximately 5.6 miles from Leeds city centre. Arthursdale is part of the larger Leeds urban area, with good transport links to the rest of the country.
AdBlue drains around Arthursdale and across West Yorkshire
Throughout LS postcodes, the vans covering Arthursdale — a residential suburb — work the nearby places too, Barnbow Carr and Sandhills included. Fastest of all: quote a LS15 4 postcode for the van.
Your car remains where it is. The drain happens on the spot, whether a drive, a street by Scholes Village Hall, or a lay-by towards Scholes Playing Field. Awkward to pin down, like the back of Scholes Methodist Church? Close to a county line? Asking is better than guessing, and so ring.
For Arthursdale drivers, the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere in West Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103.