How It Occurs and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bates Cottages
Stop here for a moment if the diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, and phone 0333 366 0103. In Bates Cottages, finding it before the motor runs normally leaves draining and a full flush on the spot. The remainder of this page explains why it takes place and how to ensure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Not one fluid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Bates Cottages and East Holywell run, with diesel feeding the motor. AdBlue goes to your exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
There's a filler for every tank. Other cars put the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others have the two together behind one flap. Topping up the diesel side at the petrol pump happens all the time. The AdBlue side is filled far less frequently, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in that gap that the mistake lives.
How AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs in Bates Cottages
Three things tend to come together, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a message from your car, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, maybe before work off Medburn Road, or at Ye Olde Fat Ox Inn on the way home after work.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the pour once it has started. It takes a few seconds, be it in Holywell or bang in the heart of Bates Cottages.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Seaton or a forecourt in Bates Cottages, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not where it sits.
- On plenty of motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck.
- Open the flap and check for a label — many motors show which belongs in which filler right there.
- The handbook. If the filler isn't by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- The person who drove the vehicle last. On a hire or company car picked up from somewhere like the car park at Seaton Delaval, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Northumberland that is.
- Switch off after you park — level ground, engine stopped, and not rushed by Hollinghill Road on the verge.
- Find the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the name "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems daft. It works.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Slowly does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it's full or the bottle runs out.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check once more, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Don't go on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bates Cottages?
The short order of things, starting with no starting the engine. The fuel pump runs on plenty of diesels the moment your ignition is switched on — and so leave it off. Topping up with diesel will not dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue sinks to the base of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Wheatridge Park Filling Station, BP or any forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the vehicle away when asked. At home around Bates Cottages? Then the vehicle stays put.
Already run? Stop when it's safe, then turn off. The next junction means the place to come off if you're on the Clayton Road, under 10 miles from Bates Cottages. A short hop across Bates Cottages is a smaller job than a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
Our arrival around Bates Cottages, and what happens next
By Holywell Village First School, close to St. Mary's Church Holywell or on your own drive: wherever the car has stopped, we come to it. We ask what got in, about how much, and whether it's run, since those replies decide this work and the quote. Nobody heads out before you have had our price by phone.
Draining your tank comes next, then a thorough flush of your system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. Hence it counts more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and your car is tested. The engine is started next and tested to confirm it runs smoothly, all before we head off.
Unstarted vehicles mostly need a half-hour visit from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy filling station, and quiet enough for a driveway late at night. Your insurer usually wants an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and both are yours at the end. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Bates Cottages itself
Bates Cottages is a suburban area located on the coast of Northumberland, with an elevation of 36 metres above sea level. Bates Cottages sits near the towns of Holywell and Seaton Delaval, and is approximately 7 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. Bates Cottages has a population of around 3206 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing. Bates Cottages is part of the wider residential area surrounding Newcastle upon Tyne, in the north east of England.
Bates Cottages and Northumberland: AdBlue drains across the area
Seaton Terrace and Seaton Delaval are among the places around Bates Cottages, a residential suburb, that the same vans cover, throughout NE postcodes. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting NE25 0.
The car remains put. A driveway, a lay-by on the way to Bates Cottage Cricket Club, a side street close to War Memorial: we drain it where it stands. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Seaton Delaval & Holywell Community Association, ring and ask instead of guessing.
Bates Cottages people: the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Keep the vehicle switched off and phone 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, throughout Northumberland.