Preventing AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bank Top: Why It Occurs
AdBlue already in your diesel tank? In that case put this page aside for now, leave the ignition and engine off, then call 0333 366 0103. Normally, if your engine has not run, it's drained and fully flushed where your car is around Bank Top. The remainder of this page explains why it happens and how to make sure it does not — useful if you're reading ahead of time.
AdBlue in a diesel car, and its separate tank
Diesel feeds the motor — but many modern diesels driven around Bank Top and Hollin Bank carry a second liquid too. 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's a filler on every tank. Some motors keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side under one flap. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, tipped by a driver who must stop and think which cap it needs. The mistake lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank happens around Bank Top
Seldom is it carelessness: usually three things line up.
On a driveway off Garden Street before work, or in the car park outside Bulls Head heading home: that is where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it is gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand goes — but a rental car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers somewhere else. That's the second factor: a strange car.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, after started, carries on. The same few seconds decide it, in the middle of Bank Top or out in Wensley Fold.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
A couple of seconds is all the checks take — so run through them before you tip anything, on a drive in Nova Scotia or a forecourt around Bank Top.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap usually is not. Read it rather than going by where it sits.
- Check the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't find it beside your diesel filler? Then look below the bonnet or in the boot — the handbook will say where.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you pick up a hire car or company car — at Mill Hill (Lancs)'s car park, perhaps — not once the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Anywhere around Lancashire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Redlam Brow.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, yes, yet it does the trick.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, make sure it's closed before the bottle comes up.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle runs dry; before that, pour gently using the built-in spout.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure the diesel cap was never opened.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into the diesel side. Step five stays off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bank Top already?
Short list, then. Top of it: the motor stays off. Do not switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of your tank, just where fuel is taken from.
Ask the staff to help roll your car clear of the pump if you are on a forecourt — the Shell, the EG On the Move or somewhere else. Your own drive around Bank Top is the place it should stay.
Already run? Stop when it's sensible, then turn off. Bank Top sits under 3 miles from the M65; on it, use the first exit. A short hop across Bank Top is a smaller job than a run towards Preston, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What takes place when our engineers get there around Bank Top
The van reaches the vehicle anywhere it has come to rest — your own driveway, beside St. Luke with St. Philip, or outside Griffin Park Primary School. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — what liquid, what amount, and whether it's run — so we ask. During the call itself, you are told the quote — ahead of anything else.
Emptying that tank comes next, followed by a thorough flush of the system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of it washes away by itself. Hence it counts more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. The motor is fired up next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our engineers head off.
With pumps fine on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where the motor has not run need roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. The 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. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours while we're on the way.
About Bank Top, for a moment
Bank Top is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with a mix of terraced housing. Bank Top has a population of around 8523 people and is located near other neighbourhoods such as Wensley Fold and Witton. Bank Top sits at an elevation of 105 metres, about 8 miles from Preston and 183 miles from London. Bank Top is characterized by its terraced homes and riverside setting.
AdBlue drains round Bank Top, and Lancashire beyond
Witton and The Wrangling are among the towns around Bank Top, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, over BB postcodes. Fastest of all: quote a BB2 2 postcode for the van.
The car does not need to move. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street near Bethesda, a lay-by on the way to Griffin Park, a drive. Awkward to explain, like the back of Baitul Rasheed? Close to a county line? Checking beats guessing, and so phone.
The short version for Bank Top drivers
Always, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in your diesel tank after all? Keep it off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it on the spot, across Lancashire.