How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Ashton-under-Lyne
Keep the motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the engine runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is around Ashton-under-Lyne. Not happened yet? Further down, the page covers the reasons it happens and the how to prevent it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that is what many newer diesels around Ashton-under-Lyne and Hurst carry, with diesel for your motor. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that is the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. Mistakes happen in the gap between the two.
Ashton-under-Lyne: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
Hurry comes from the warning. The vehicle tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends it into limp mode — so the top-up happens quickly, before work on a driveway off Harley Street, or on the way home in the car park outside The Railway.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, after started, carries on. It's seconds, whether in Hurst Brook or right in the centre of Ashton-under-Lyne.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Check these first, on a forecourt in Ashton-under-Lyne or a drive out in Waterloo. Seconds, that's all.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not its position.
- On plenty of vehicles, the size tells: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Plenty of cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it is in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Ask 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 the nearest station.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — wherever you are around Greater Manchester — a simple routine to use.
- Stop on level, motor off, with time in hand — never hurried on the side of Camp Street.
- Silly as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap works — once you have found the filler and read it.
- The two under one flap? Then make sure the cap on your diesel side is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and check a second time that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Don't go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Ashton-under-Lyne already?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting your motor. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, and so do not switch the car on. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is sucked from.
At a forecourt — the nearest petrol station, Sainsbury's or another — the staff will normally help roll the car clear, when you ask. Leave it where it is if you are on your own driveway around Ashton-under-Lyne.
Already run? Stop when it is safe, then turn off. Leave the M60 — under a mile out of Ashton-under-Lyne — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Manchester, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Ashton-under-Lyne.
Ashton-under-Lyne: what takes place when our technicians get there
Wherever the car has stopped, be it outside St James' Church of England Primary School, near Tameside MB Council Offices or on your own drive, the van travels to it. Those replies settle the work and the quote, and so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it has run. No one sets off before you've had our price over the phone.
Then that tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that counts more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own. After your filter has been cleaned — or renewed, if required — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle gets tested. The engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before our engineers go.
Unstarted cars mostly mean a half-hour visit after the moment we arrive. The kit is safe on a busy forecourt, and hushed enough for a driveway late at night. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth looking at your policy as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover is included with many policies.
About Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a town in Greater Manchester, situated on the River Tame at an elevation of around 119 metres. Ashton-under-Lyne lies approximately 6 miles east of Manchester, with nearby areas including Hurst Brook, Hurst Knoll, and Crowhill. Ashton-under-Lyne has a mix of housing types, but is predominantly characterised by terraced properties. Ashton-under-Lyne is located about 160 miles northwest of London, in the North West region of England.
AdBlue drains across Greater Manchester, Ashton-under-Lyne included
As a riverside town, Ashton-under-Lyne shares its vans surrounding places — Hurst Knoll, Crowhill — all the way across OL postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting OL6 6 gets the van to you fastest.
There's no need to shift your car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Ashton Town Hall, a lay-by on the way to Memorial Gardens, a drive. Guessing won't help at the back of Museum of the Manchester Regiment, close to a border, or anywhere hard to describe; phone and check.
For Ashton-under-Lyne people, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Leave it off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, throughout Greater Manchester.