AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Barmston: How It Occurs and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where your vehicle stands around Barmston, is normally all it needs when caught before your engine runs. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel feeds your motor — but many modern diesels seen round Barmston and Cox Green carry another fluid too. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from a separate tank.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, side by side: that is the layout on a lot of motors. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the petrol pump goes on constantly. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less often. It is in the gap that the mistake happens.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Barmston: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and if it runs out completely, your vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Horsley Road before work, or in the car park at NE 38 Sports Bar on the way home.
Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old vehicle — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. And so the pour, once begun, carries on. Teal Farm or the heart of Barmston: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Check these first, on a forecourt in Barmston or a driveway over in Sulgrave. Seconds, no more.
- Check the cap rather than going by position: AdBlue caps are commonly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- The size. On many cars the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: many cars carry a label there saying which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your 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 pick up a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Heworth.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
Wherever across Tyne and Wear the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Waskerley Road, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park and switch off first.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" out loud while unscrewing it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start your car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Find at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Never go on to step five.
Barmston: already put AdBlue in the diesel tank?
Brief order, then. First: the engine stays unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on alone starts your fuel pump. Thinning it with more diesel fails, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that's where the fuel is sucked from.
The staff at Sainsbury's, Esso or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear if asked. If you're on your own drive around Barmston, leave it where it stands.
If the engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Leave the A194(M) — under 3 miles out of Barmston — at the next junction. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Sunderland, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Barmston.
Our arrival in Barmston, and what occurs next
By Barmston Village Primary School, near Ganderland 1 or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Which fluid went in, the amount, and whether it ran: we ask since those answers set both work and price. You get that quote by phone, before anyone heads out.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed 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. Filter flushed or, where needed, replaced; clean diesel in; then a check of your vehicle. Then our technicians fire it up and check it runs properly before we leave.
With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs where your motor has not run take about half an hour after we arrive. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the paperwork an insurer wants: an engineer report and a VAT invoice. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Barmston itself
Barmston is a suburban area located inland in Tyne and Wear, with an elevation of around 39 metres. Barmston sits near the city of Sunderland, approximately 4.6 miles away, and is close to nearby places such as Teal Farm and Hertburn. Barmston has a population of around 4101 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Barmston is situated in the North East region of England, about 241.2 miles from London.
AdBlue drains about Barmston, and Tyne and Wear beyond
Being a residential suburb, Barmston shares its vans surrounding places — Columbia, Hertburn — right through NE postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Give a postcode beginning NE38 8, and our van arrives quickest.
Moving the car isn't necessary. Our engineers drain it where it is — a side street near Ganderland 2, a lay-by on the way to Barmston Pond Local Nature Reserve, a drive. Guessing doesn't help at the back of Washington Old Hall, close to a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
For Barmston drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in the diesel tank anyway, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it waits, anywhere around Tyne and Wear.