How It Happens and How to Prevent It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Beacon Lough
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page down a moment, leave the ignition and motor off, and ring 0333 366 0103. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where your vehicle sits around Beacon Lough, is usually what it needs if caught before your motor runs. If you're reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it does not.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Diesel feeds your engine — but many newer diesels driven around Beacon Lough and Wrekenton carry another fluid as well. The exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: dosed into the fumes to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; a lot of others place both side by side under one flap. Diesel goes in on each forecourt call-out, again and again. Seldom filled, AdBlue usually comes out of a bottle, poured by a driver who must stop and think what filler to use. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place in Beacon Lough
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things coming up at once.
On a driveway off Sundew Road before work, or in the car park outside Travellers Rest heading home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. Why the rush? As AdBlue gets low your car warns you, and if it's gone, limp mode follows.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — yet a rental car, a new car or a company car keeps the fillers elsewhere. That is a second factor: a strange vehicle.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Sheriff Hill or the middle of Beacon Lough: it takes the same few seconds in both.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Beacon Lough forecourt or a driveway out in Low Fell, spend a couple of seconds on these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or marked "AdBlue". The diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Plenty of motors give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- The flap. Look inside your fuel flap for a label. Plenty of vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook says where it is when your filler is not next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- 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.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever in Tyne and Wear the light comes on, here is a routine for the day.
- Not in a rush on the side of Old Durham Road, not on a slope, not with your motor running: park and switch off first.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it does the trick.
- Both under one flap? So make sure the lid on the diesel side stays closed before raising the bottle.
- Gently does it, through the bottle's own spout, till it is full or the bottle runs out.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Discover at the second or third step that AdBlue went in the wrong filler? That's where you stop. Never go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank around Beacon Lough already?
Don't start the motor: that is where the short order of things begins. Keep the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs your fuel pump. Filling up with diesel won't thin it: instead, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, just where the fuel is taken from.
The staff at JET, Sainsbury's or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car clear if asked. Leave it where it is if you are on your own drive around Beacon Lough.
Already started? Stop once it is sensible, then switch off. On the A194(M), under 3 miles from Beacon Lough, that means the next exit. A short hop across Beacon Lough is a smaller job than a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 5 miles away, and so tell us about how far it went.
Our arrival around Beacon Lough, and what happens next
Outside Larkspur Community Primary School, close to Beacon Lough Baptist Church or on your own drive: wherever your car has stopped, we come to it. The answers decide the work and the price, so our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and if it has run. You hear that quote on the phone, before anybody heads out.
Then the tank is drained and the fuel system rinsed thoroughly. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. After the fuel filter is flushed — or renewed, where needed — fresh diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. Before leaving, we start the engine and make sure that it is running properly.
Using pumps safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where the engine hasn't run need roughly half an hour after our technicians arrive. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Beacon Lough
Beacon Lough is a suburban area located inland in Tyne and Wear, sitting at an elevation of 157 metres. Beacon Lough is situated approximately 3.3 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne, with nearby places including Sheriff Hill, Lyndhurst, and Windy Nook. Beacon Lough has a population of around 5773 people, predominantly living in semi-detached housing.
AdBlue drains in Beacon Lough and across Tyne and Wear
Being a residential suburb, Beacon Lough shares its vans nearby areas — Lyndhurst, Windy Nook — right through NE postcodes and the wider area beyond. A postcode starting NE9 6 gets our van to you fastest.
The vehicle remains where it is. We drain it where it is — a side street near St Oswalds Catholic Church, a lay-by on the way to White Hill, a drive. If you are close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of St John's Church, ring and ask instead of guessing.
For Beacon Lough drivers, the short version
Pour nothing till you've read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it on the spot, anywhere across Tyne and Wear, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave it off and call 0333 366 0103.