How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Back o th Moss
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your car sits around Back o th Moss, is usually all it takes if found before your engine runs. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Many current diesels on the roads around Back o th Moss and Bottom o th Brow carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. The exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh it, from a separate tank.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in your boot instead. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled all the time. Seldom topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by someone who must stop and think which filler it needs. The mistake grows in that gap between them.
How does AdBlue in the diesel tank occur in Back o th Moss?
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running out means limp mode — hence a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Bamford Road, or outside The Edwin Waugh on the way home after work.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old one.
Nothing stops the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it takes place in Hooley Brow or the middle of Back o th Moss, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Be it a Back o th Moss forecourt or a driveway over in Captain Fold, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones usually don't.
- Many motors fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Open the filler flap and look for a label — plenty of cars mark which belongs in which filler right there.
- Cannot see it beside your diesel inlet? In that case check beneath the bonnet or inside the boot — the owner's manual will say where.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park at Castleton? Check with whoever drove the car last before leaving, rather than when the light comes on.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, wherever across Greater Manchester, follow this routine.
- Switch off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by River Street on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave the car on.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to stage five.
Already put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Back o th Moss?
Then the order of things is short. Do not start your engine. Leave the ignition off too, because on many diesels switching it on 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 the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle clear of the pump if you're at a forecourt — the Morrisons, the Esso or somewhere else. At home around Back o th Moss? So the car remains put.
When your motor has been run already, pull over somewhere safe and turn it off. The next junction is where to leave if you are on the M62, under 3 miles from Back o th Moss. Mileage matters — a short hop across Back o th Moss is a smaller job than driving under 10 miles towards Manchester — so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians turn up in Back o th Moss, what occurs?
Outside St Luke's Church of England Primary School, close to Heywood Sports Village or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our engineers come to it. Both the work and the quote rest on three answers — which liquid, which amount, and if it has run — so our technicians ask. The quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Then your tank is cleared and the fuel system flushed thoroughly. With AdBlue that matters more than with petrol: it crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it does not wash out on its own. After the filter is cleaned — or replaced, where required — clean diesel is added, and finally the car is tested. Your engine is fired up next and checked to confirm it runs properly, all before we go.
If your motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you are given the paperwork your insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Back o th Moss itself
Back o th Moss is a suburban area in Greater Manchester, situated near the River Roch and close to the towns of Heywood and Middleton. Back o th Moss has a mix of terraced housing and local amenities, with the city of Manchester just 8 miles away. Back o th Moss sits at an elevation of 115 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Back o th Moss is connected to nearby Hooley Brow and Hooley Bridge by local roads and pathways.
AdBlue drains in Back o th Moss and across Greater Manchester
Back o th Moss is a residential suburb, and the teams that cover it also work the towns around it, Hooley Bridge and Heywood among them, across the OL postcode area. Fastest of all: give a OL10 4 postcode for the van.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. We drain it where it is — a side street near Heywood Cricket Club, a lay-by on the way to Queen's Park, a driveway. Ring and ask rather than guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to explain, like the back of Saint Luke's Church, Heywood.
Back o th Moss drivers: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere around Greater Manchester: switch the car off and call 0333 366 0103.