AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Benwell: Why It Occurs and How to Avoid It
Keep your motor and ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait when AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. Around Benwell, catching it before the engine runs usually means draining and a thorough flush where it stands. If you are reading before it has happened, the rest of this page is about why it takes place and how to make sure it does not.
AdBlue in a diesel motor: two tanks, two fillers
Many newer diesels on the roads around Benwell and Denton Burn carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your 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 is a filler on every tank. Other vehicles keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty of others have the two together under one flap. At the pump, the diesel side is topped up constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, usually from a bottle, and usually by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It's in the gap that the error lives.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Benwell: how it takes place
Carelessness rarely causes it. Instead is three things lining up at once.
The warning comes first. As AdBlue runs low the vehicle 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 Tantobie Road before work, or in the car park at Denton Hotel on the way home.
New-to-you motors are next, too. Hire cars, new cars and company cars put their fillers in new places, and habit goes for the cap used on the old one.
Lastly, the spout goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue filler, it slides in as easily, and once the tip starts, nothing halts it. Whether it takes place in Scotswood or the middle of Benwell, it's the same few seconds.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Be it a Benwell forecourt or a drive out in East Denton, spend a couple of seconds over these before any goes in.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are frequently blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel ones usually aren't.
- Look at the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- The flap. Look inside the fuel flap for a label. Many vehicles say there which fuel goes where.
- Can't see it beside the diesel filler? In that case look beneath the bonnet or in your boot — the handbook says where.
- 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 outside Blaydon.
AdBlue top-ups that never reach the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever around Tyne and Wear that is.
- Pull in on level, motor off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Castleside Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it works.
- If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Finish when that tank is topped up or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using its built-in spout.
- Only then, start the car: close the cap, check a second time, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Do not go on to step five.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, in Benwell?
Brief list, then. Top of it: your engine stays unstarted. Keep the ignition off too, since on many diesels switching it on by itself runs your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of that tank, where the fuel is drawn from — so don't top up with diesel to thin it.
On a forecourt — BP, Gulf or any other — the attendants will usually help push the vehicle clear, when you ask. Your own drive in Benwell is the place it should stay.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. Benwell sits under 3 miles from the Central Motorway East; there, take the first junction. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Newcastle upon Tyne, under 5 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Benwell.
When our technicians arrive in Benwell, what happens?
Anywhere the vehicle has stopped, whether outside St Bede's Catholic Primary School, Newcastle, near Broadmead Way Evangelical Church or at home, our van travels to it. Our technicians ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run, since those answers settle the work and our quote. You get that quote by phone, before anyone sets off.
Draining your tank comes next, then a full flush of the fuel system. Much more than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, certain metals are attacked, and nothing washes out on its own, no matter how long it is left. The fuel filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then our engineers start the car and make sure it runs correctly before we go.
Most jobs are finished in about half an hour once our technicians get there, as long as the engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are fine on a live forecourt yet quiet at night outside a house. No money upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Benwell
Benwell is a suburban area located inland in Tyne and Wear, approximately 3 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne. Benwell sits at an elevation of around 75 metres, with semi-detached housing being the predominant type of accommodation in the area. Benwell is close to nearby places such as Scotswood and Old Benwell, and is situated near the western edge of Newcastle upon Tyne. Benwell has a population of around 6241 people.
AdBlue drains across Tyne and Wear, Benwell included
As a residential suburb, Benwell shares its vans surrounding places — Old Benwell, Bells Close — right through NE postcodes and the surrounding area around them. Quickest of all: give a NE15 6 postcode for our van.
The vehicle stays put. Wherever it stands — near St Bedes, in a lay-by en route to Scotswood Garden, at home — that is where it is emptied. Ring and ask instead of guessing if you're near a boundary, or somewhere hard to describe, like the back of Denton Burn Methodist Church.
Benwell drivers: the short version
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it wherever it is, wherever in Tyne and Wear: keep the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103.