Belgrave: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Pause here a minute if your diesel tank already has AdBlue in it: ignition off, motor off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Belgrave, catching it before your engine turns usually leaves a drain and a full flush where it stands. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to ensure it does not — useful if you're reading before it has happened.
AdBlue in a diesel car: two tanks, two fillers
Plenty of newer diesels around Radford, like those in Belgrave, run on two liquids; your engine takes only your diesel. Its own tank keeps it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying treats the gas.
Different tanks, separate fillers. Under one flap, next to each other: that is the layout on many motors. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in at each filling station call-out, again and again. The AdBlue side is fuelled far less regularly, usually from a bottle, and usually by somebody who has to stop and think where it goes. That gap is where the slip lives.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Belgrave
It's rarely carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the car tells you, and if it runs out completely, the vehicle goes into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Police Street before work, or in the car park outside The Millstone on the way home.
Next, your hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old motor — since a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers where your last one did not.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, so nothing stops the tip after it has started. Whether it takes place in Darwen or the middle of Belgrave, it is the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Check these first, at a forecourt in Belgrave or a drive over in Chapels. A few seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Plenty of vehicles give AdBlue the smaller filler of the two.
- A label inside the fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of cars. Look for it.
- The handbook says where it lives when your filler isn't next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park outside Darwen.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank
Wherever across Lancashire the light comes on, this is a routine for the day.
- Park and switch off. Not on a slope, not with your motor running, and not in a rush on the side of James Street West.
- Daft as it sounds, saying "AdBlue" out loud while you unscrew the cap works — after you've found your filler and read the cap.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave it on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap, and check again — confirm the diesel cap remained shut throughout. After that, start your car.
Spot at stage two or three that it's already gone into the diesel side? Then stop right there. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in the diesel tank already, around Belgrave?
The short order of things, starting with not starting the motor. Leave your ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on alone runs your pump. Filling up with diesel won't weaken it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the base of the tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the Shell, the Texaco or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Belgrave.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. The next junction means where to leave when you're on the M65, under 3 miles from Belgrave. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Preston, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Belgrave.
Our arrival in Belgrave, and what takes place next
By Holy Trinity VC School, near Darwen Leisure Centre or on your own drive: wherever the vehicle has stopped, our engineers come to it. Our technicians ask what went in, about how much, and whether it's run, since the replies determine the work and the quote. You get that price on the phone, before anyone heads out.
Draining that tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, and so it doesn't wash out on its own — which is why the flush matters more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once your filter has been flushed — or renewed, if required — clean diesel is added, and then your car gets tested. Next our technicians fire it up and confirm it runs smoothly before we go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which your motor has not run take about half an hour after our technicians arrive. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; plenty carry cover for misfuelling.
About Belgrave
Belgrave is a suburban area in Lancashire, situated on the riverside with nearby towns including Darwen and Preston. Belgrave has a population of around 5540 people and is characterised by predominantly terraced housing. Belgrave sits at an elevation of 167 metres, approximately 10 miles from Preston and 180 miles from London. Belgrave is close to other nearby places such as Shorey Bank and Livesey Fold.
AdBlue drains across Lancashire, Belgrave included
Being a residential suburb, Belgrave shares its vans nearby places — Shorey Bank, Livesey Fold — right across BB postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a BB3 1 postcode for our van.
There's no need to shift the car. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Darwen Spitfire Memorial Sculpture, a lay-by on the way to Shorey Bank, a drive. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a border, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of South African War Memorial.
For Belgrave drivers, the short version
First, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave it off then phone 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel drains it where it sits, anywhere in Lancashire.