Belle Green: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave the engine and the ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done just where your vehicle stands in Belle Green, is usually what it needs if caught before your motor runs. Reading in advance? Then the rest covers how it comes about and how to prevent it ever happening.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
No single fluid but two: that is what plenty of newer diesels near Belle Green and Shafton Two Gates run, with diesel feeding the motor. Its own tank holds it, and from there it is sent to your exhaust, and there spraying cleans the gas.
There's a filler for every tank. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on many vehicles. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler sits under the bonnet or in your boot instead. Topping up your diesel side at the pump goes on all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually fills the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less frequently. That gap is where the error lives.
Belle Green: how AdBlue in the diesel tank occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low your car tells you, and if it runs out altogether, the vehicle drops into limp mode. So the top-up is done in a hurry: on a drive off Paddock Grove before work, or in the car park at The Star on the way home.
Then, the hand reaches for the cap it knew on the old car — because a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car places the fillers where your last one didn't.
Lastly, the spout goes in: diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it goes in just as easily, and once the pour begins, nothing stops it. Whether it happens in Cudworth or the middle of Belle Green, it is the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from your diesel filler
Be it a Belle Green forecourt or a driveway out in Cudworth Common, spend a couple of seconds over these before any is poured in.
- Blue and marking: an AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- Plenty of cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many cars say there which fuel goes where.
- The handbook shows which it lives if the filler is not next to the diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask as you collect a rental or company car — from Barnsley's car park, say — rather than when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
For the day the light comes on — anywhere you are across South Yorkshire — a routine to follow.
- Not in a rush on the side of Belle Green Close, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park and switch off properly.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and say the name "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave the diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Pour slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check a second time. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the car.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you've already poured into the diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Belle Green: already put AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On many diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch it on. Filling up with diesel will not dilute it: instead, AdBlue sinks to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is drawn from.
At a forecourt — Stay Warm Solid Fuels LTD, JET or any other — the attendants will normally help roll the car clear, if you ask. At home around Belle Green? So the car stays where it is.
If your engine has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Come off the M1 — under 5 miles out of Belle Green — at the next exit. A short hop across Belle Green is a smaller job than a run towards Wakefield, under 10 miles away, and so tell us roughly how far it went.
When we arrive in Belle Green, what takes place?
By Churchfield Primary School, close to Dorothy Hyman Sports Centre or on your own driveway: wherever your car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Our technicians ask what got in, about how much, and whether it has run, because the answers decide the work and our price. That quote comes on the call, ahead of any van leaving.
Draining the tank comes next, then a full flush of your system. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals form, some metals are attacked, and nothing clears out on its own, no matter how long it is left. Filter cleaned or, if it must be, swapped; clean diesel in; and then a check of your car. We do not go until it has been started and is running smoothly.
If the engine has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once we're there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. It is worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Belle Green itself
Belle Green is a suburban area in South Yorkshire, situated approximately 8 miles from Wakefield and 152 miles from London, with a mix of terraced housing and local amenities. Belle Green has a population of around 3828 residents and is located near other local places such as Cudworth and Upper Cudworth. Belle Green sits at an elevation of 61 metres, characteristic of the gently sloping landscape of the region. Belle Green is part of the larger urban area surrounding Wakefield, with nearby West Green also being a neighbouring community.
AdBlue drains across South Yorkshire, Belle Green included
Throughout S postcodes, our teams covering Belle Green — a residential suburb — work the surrounding places too, West Green and Upper Cudworth among them. A postcode starting S72 8 gets the van to you fastest.
Your car remains where it is. Our technicians drain it where it is — a side street close to Archie Stinchcombe Plaque, a lay-by on the way to Cudworth Pocket Park Peace Garden, a driveway. Guessing won't help at the back of St Mary Magdalene, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to describe; ring and ask.
For Belle Green motorists, the short version
First, the cap; then, the tip. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave it off then ring 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across South Yorkshire.