Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Balladen: Why It Happens
Leave the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Caught before the motor runs, it's generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is around Balladen. If you're reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel car need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your engine — yet many current diesels seen about Balladen and New Hall Hey hold another fluid too. 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 has one filler of its own. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have both together behind one flap. Diesel gets filled at every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. A driver who has to stop and work out where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. The slip lives in that gap.
Balladen: how AdBlue in your diesel tank happens
Carelessness seldom explains it. What does is three things coming up at once.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a message from the car, and letting it run out means limp mode — so a rushed top-up, perhaps before work off Horncliffe Close, perhaps outside Whitchaff on the way home that evening.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old motor — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one didn't.
No part stops the tip once it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it happens in Townsend Fold or the middle of Balladen, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Balladen forecourt or a driveway out in Longholme, take a couple of seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is often blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Plenty of vehicles fit AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- Lift the filler flap and check for a label — plenty of vehicles show what goes in each filler just there.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler sits if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you collect a rental or company car — at Accrington's car park, perhaps — not once the light appears.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
On the day the warning comes on — anywhere it is in Lancashire — a routine to follow.
- Turn off once parked — flat ground, engine stopped, and not rushed beside Lower Clowes Road on the verge.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew it. It seems daft. It does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where both share a flap, make sure it is shut before the bottle comes up.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, and look again — making sure your diesel filler stayed closed throughout. Only then, start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into your diesel side. Skip stage five entirely.
Balladen: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the motor. Leave the ignition off as well, since on many diesels switching it on by itself runs the fuel pump. Do not top up with diesel to dilute it: AdBlue does not mix with diesel, it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is drawn from.
The attendants at Tesco, Shell or any forecourt will normally help to push the vehicle away if asked. If you're on your own driveway around Balladen, leave it where it stands.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then switch off. Come off the M66 — under 3 miles out of Balladen — at the next junction. A short hop across Balladen is a smaller job than a run towards Salford, under 15 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Balladen: what happens when our technicians arrive
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether by Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School, near TK Maxx or on your own drive, the van travels to it. We ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if it's run, because the replies decide this work and our quote. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Emptying your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: the crystals form, some metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it sits. Once the fuel filter has been flushed — or replaced, if needed — fresh diesel is added, and finally your vehicle is tested. We don't leave until it has been started and is running smoothly.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour once our engineers arrive. Your insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours once this job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Balladen and where it is
Balladen is a locality in Lancashire, situated on the riverside at an elevation of 225 metres, with detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation. Balladen lies near several other small places, including Townsend Fold, Wood Top, and Hall Carr, and is approximately 14.4 miles from the city of Salford. Balladen is characterized by its rural setting and relatively small population of around 968 residents. Balladen is also some distance from the capital, being around 176.1 miles from London.
AdBlue drains around Balladen and across Lancashire
Wood Top and Hall Carr are among the places near Balladen, a small village, that the same teams cover, over BB postcodes. Quickest of all: give a BB4 6 postcode to the van.
The car doesn't need to move. Draining takes place right there, be it a driveway, a road near The Whitaker, or a layby towards Horncliffe Wood. If you're close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Rawtenstall Library, ring and ask instead of guessing.
In short, for Balladen motorists
Tip nothing until you have read the cap. Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, anywhere across Lancashire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless — and so leave it off then call 0333 366 0103.