Banagher: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Avoid It?
Leave the motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. A drain plus a thorough flush, done just where your car stands in Banagher, is normally what it needs if caught before the engine runs. Here before the event? In that case the rest covers how it comes about and what to prevent it happening at all.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Plenty of newer diesels around Derrynaflaw, like those in Banagher, run on two fluids; the engine takes just the diesel. AdBlue's own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to the exhaust, and there a spray treats the fumes.
Every tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the arrangement on many cars. On others, AdBlue's filler is under the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the petrol pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. It's in the gap that the mistake lives.
Banagher: how AdBlue in your diesel tank occurs
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Hurry 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 Crown Street, or heading home in the car park at the pub in the village.
Next, the hand goes for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, since a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Feeny or the middle of Banagher, it is the same few seconds.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Ballyrory or a forecourt around Banagher, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Where it sits can mislead; the cap doesn't. AdBlue ones tend to be blue or carry the word "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- On many vehicles, the size gives it away: AdBlue gets the smaller filler neck.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Look for it.
- The handbook shows which it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: the boot, or under the bonnet.
- Picking up a hire or company car, say at the car park at the nearest station? Ask whoever drove it last before you set off, rather than once the light comes on.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
Anywhere around County Londonderry the light comes on, here is a routine for that day.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the engine running, and not in a rush on the side of Rock Street.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — and leave it on.
- Stop when your tank fills or the bottle runs dry; until then, pour slowly using its built-in spout.
- Before you start the car, shut the cap and check again that the diesel cap never opened off.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Never go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Banagher?
Don't start your motor: that is how the short order of things starts. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, another forecourt nearby or any forecourt will normally lend a hand to push the car clear if you ask. If you're on your own driveway around Banagher, leave the car where it stands.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M77 — over 50 miles out of Banagher — at the first exit. Distance matters — a short hop across Banagher is a smaller job than heading under 15 miles towards Derry — so tell us roughly how far it went.
Banagher: what happens when our engineers arrive
By the local primary school, close to the centre or on your own driveway: wherever the vehicle has stopped, we come to it. The answers determine the work and the price, so our technicians ask what was put in, about how much, and if it's run. On the phone call itself, you hear our quote — ahead of dispatch.
After that: a drain, then a thorough flush of the whole system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks some fuel-system metals, and none of it clears out by itself. That is why it counts more. A test comes at the end: before that, fresh diesel goes in, and your filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Before we leave, we fire it up and confirm that it is running properly.
Unstarted vehicles usually mean a half-hour job after arrival. The equipment is fine on a busy filling station, and hushed enough for a residential street after dark. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Banagher, for a moment
Banagher is a small locality in County Londonderry, situated inland at an elevation of around 140 metres. Banagher lies approximately 13 miles from Derry, near the villages of Feeny and Straidarran, and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Banagher is a relatively small community, with a population of around 702 people, and is part of the wider rural landscape of Northern Ireland.
AdBlue drains around Banagher, and County Londonderry beyond
Being a small village, Banagher shares its vans surrounding areas — Straidarran, Park — right across BT postcodes and the wider area beyond. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting BT47 4.
Shifting the vehicle is not needed. Anywhere it sits — near a street just off the centre, in a lay-by en route to the green space at the edge of the village, on a drive — that is where it gets drained. Assuming doesn't help at the back of the far end of the built-up part, on a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; ring and ask.
In short, for Banagher drivers
First, the cap; then, the tip. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank all the same, leave the car off then call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around County Londonderry.