Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashgate: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. In Ashgate, catching it before your motor runs usually leaves a drain and a thorough flush on the spot. The rest of this page covers why it happens and how to ensure it does not — handy if you're reading ahead of time.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many modern diesels around Old Brampton, as well as Ashgate, run on two fluids; your engine takes only your diesel. 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, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of motors. On others, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Filling your diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. Far less commonly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
Ashgate: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Fairfield Drive, or on the way home in the car park at Holme Hall Inn.
New-to-you cars come next, as well. Hire cars, new motors and company vehicles put their fillers differently, and habit reaches for the cap it used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It's a few seconds, whether out in Woodnook or bang in the centre of Ashgate.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Look at these before pouring, on a forecourt in Ashgate or a driveway over in Upper Newbold. A few seconds, that's all.
- Check the cap instead of going by position: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- Cannot find it next to the diesel inlet? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park outside Chesterfield? Ask whoever drove it last before leaving, not once the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Derbyshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Linacre Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the vehicle on.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into the diesel side, stop there. Don't carry on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ashgate?
Short list, then. Top of it: your motor stays unstarted. Leave your ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on alone runs your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
On a forecourt — Esso, Morrisons or any other — the staff will usually help roll the car clear, if you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway in Ashgate.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the M1 — under 10 miles out of Ashgate — at the next junction. Mileage matters — a quick hop across Ashgate is a smaller job than heading under 10 miles towards Sheffield — so say about how far it went.
Our arrival around Ashgate, and what occurs next
Our engineers come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside Holme Hall Primary School, near Woodland Bollard or on your own drive. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask since the answers decide the work and quote. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody sets off.
Then your tank is emptied and your system flushed thoroughly. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away by itself. Hence it matters more. A test is at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the fuel filter is flushed or changed if necessary. Next our technicians start the engine and make sure it runs properly before we go.
If your motor hasn't run, most jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and the report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
About Ashgate itself
Ashgate is a suburban area in Derbyshire, situated near the River Rother and close to the city of Sheffield. Ashgate sits at an elevation of 132 metres, with a mix of housing types although predominantly detached homes. Ashgate is located near other local places such as Woodnook, Loundsley Green, and Brookside, and is about 9.7 miles from Sheffield city centre.
Ashgate and Derbyshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Ashgate is a residential suburb, and our vans that cover it also work the towns near it, Loundsley Green and Brookside among them, across the S postcode area. A postcode starting S42 7 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car stays put. The drain happens on the spot, be it a driveway, a street near Brookfield Community School Sports Centre, or a lay-by on the way to Ashgate Plantation. Assuming doesn't help at the back of Holymoorside & Walton North Boundary Stone, on a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe; phone and ask.
The short version for Ashgate motorists
Always, the cap; after that, the tip. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere around Derbyshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — and so leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103.