How It Happens and How to Avoid It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Bents Green
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? In that case set this page aside a moment, leave the ignition and engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. In Bents Green, finding it before your engine runs normally leaves draining and a thorough flush on the spot. If you are reading before it has happened, the remainder of this page is about why it happens and how to make sure it doesn't.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Plenty of modern diesels on the roads around Bents Green and Ecclesall carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Stored in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Each tank has one filler of its own. Under one flap, next to each other: that's the layout on a lot of cars. Elsewhere, AdBlue's filler is beneath the bonnet or in the boot instead. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up all the time. Much less often, the AdBlue side is filled — mostly from a bottle, by a person thinking about where it goes. Mistakes happen in that gap between the two.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bents Green: how it occurs
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
Hurry follows from the warning. The car tells you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up happens in a rush, before work on a driveway off Bents Drive, or heading home in the car park at The Hammer & Pincers.
Unfamiliar vehicles are second, too. Rentals, new cars and company motors put their fillers differently, and the hand reaches for the cap used on the old one.
Nothing halts the pour after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Whether it occurs in Hill Top or the middle of Bents Green, it's the same few seconds.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you tip anything, whether on a driveway in Little Common or a forecourt in Bents Green, check these. They take a few seconds.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Go by the cap, not where it sits.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Look inside your fuel flap: plenty of vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that's where your filler sits if it is not by your diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- Whoever had it before knows. Ask when you pick up a hire car or fleet car — from Dore & Totley's car park, perhaps — not when the warning appears.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light goes on, wherever around South Yorkshire, follow this routine.
- Stop somewhere level, motor off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Ringinglow Road.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and reading it. Daft, perhaps, but it does the trick.
- Both behind a single flap? So confirm the cap on your diesel filler stays shut before lifting the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, tip slowly — and stop when it's full or the bottle is empty.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Leave out step five entirely.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bents Green already?
What follows is a short order of things, beginning with no starting the engine. Keep the ignition off as well, since on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself runs the fuel pump. Diluting it with more diesel fails, because AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is sucked from.
On a forecourt — Esso, Tesco or any other — the attendants will usually help roll the car clear, when you ask. If you're on your own driveway in Bents Green, leave it where it is.
If your motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe then switch off. Bents Green lies under 10 miles from the M1; on it, use the first junction. A short hop across Bents Green is a smaller job than a run towards Sheffield, under 5 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
What happens when our engineers turn up around Bents Green
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Ecclesall Primary School, near Bents Green Methodist Church or on your own driveway. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so we ask. You get that price by phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after your tank is cleared. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at some fuel-system metals, and none of it washes out by itself. That is why it matters more. A test comes at the end: before that, clean diesel goes in, and the filter is flushed or replaced if necessary. Before we go, we fire it up and make sure that it is running properly.
Most jobs are finished in roughly half an hour after we get there, provided the motor hasn't run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt and quiet at night outside a house. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both once the job is done. Payment is on the day, with no deposit. While we travel, have a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Bents Green itself
Bents Green is a suburban area situated near the River Sheaf in South Yorkshire, with a mix of semi-detached housing and local amenities. Bents Green sits at an elevation of 233 metres, overlooking the surrounding countryside and the nearby city of Sheffield. Bents Green is close to several other suburban areas, including Hill Top and Parkhead, and is about 3 miles from Sheffield city centre. Bents Green has a population of around 2920 people, living in a variety of semi-detached homes.
AdBlue drains around Bents Green and across South Yorkshire
Parkhead and Greystones Cliffe are among the places around Bents Green, a residential suburb, that the same teams cover, over S postcodes. Quote a postcode that starts S11 7, and the van arrives fastest.
No need to shift the car. Anywhere it sits — near Adrian Lane, in a layby heading to Silverdale School Field, at home — that's where it is emptied. Guessing doesn't help behind Boulsover Monument, on a border, or somewhere awkward to describe; phone and check.
In short, for Bents Green motorists
Before you pour, read the cap. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it stands, anywhere around South Yorkshire, if AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank anyway — so leave the vehicle off then ring 0333 366 0103.