Bilton: How Does AdBlue End Up in a Diesel Tank, and How Do You Prevent It?
Keep the motor and ignition off then ring 0333 366 0103 now — the rest can wait if AdBlue is already in the diesel tank. A drain and a thorough flush, done right where the car stands in Bilton, is usually what it takes if found before the motor runs. Not happened yet? Below, the page covers the why it occurs and the how to avoid it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Many current diesels on the roads about Bilton and High Harrogate carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your motor. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is fed into your exhaust gas to clean it.
Each tank has its own filler. Other cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more place the two side by side behind one flap. At the pump, the diesel side gets filled all the time. Someone who has to stop and think where it goes normally tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and much less regularly. It is in that gap that the slip lives.
Bilton: how AdBlue in the diesel tank takes place
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is rarely one of them.
First, the warning. Low AdBlue brings a warning from the car, and running out means limp mode — so a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Bilton Grove Avenue, or at The Oak Beck on the way home that evening.
Next, the hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — because a hire car, a new car or a company car places the fillers somewhere your last one did not.
Third, the bottle goes in: a diesel filler or AdBlue one, it goes in as readily, and after the pour begins, no part stops it. Whether it takes place in Old Bilton or the middle of Bilton, it's the same few seconds.
How to tell the AdBlue filler from the diesel one
Whether a Bilton forecourt or a driveway over in Low Harrogate, spend a few seconds over these before anything is poured in.
- Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is commonly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually does not. Trust the cap, not its position.
- Look at the size: the smaller neck is, on plenty of vehicles, the AdBlue one.
- Open the flap and look for a label — many cars mark what goes in which filler right there.
- In the boot or under the bonnet: that's where the filler is if it is not by the diesel cap, and the handbook says which.
- 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 Harrogate.
How to top up without AdBlue in the diesel tank
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across North Yorkshire that is.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never hurried on the side of Hill Top Avenue.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds daft and it does the trick.
- The two under a single flap? So confirm the cap on the diesel filler is still shut ahead of lifting the bottle.
- Stop once your tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly using its own spout.
- Close the cap and check once more. Make sure your diesel cap was never opened. Only then start the vehicle.
Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Do not go on to step five.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bilton already?
Don't start the motor: that's how the short order of things starts. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Filling up with diesel won't dilute it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the bottom of that tank, right where fuel is taken from.
The attendants at Esso, Shell or any forecourt will normally help pushing the car away if asked. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway around Bilton.
If the motor has already run, stop as soon as it is safe and switch off. Come off the A1(M) — under 10 miles out of Bilton — at the next junction. A short hop across Bilton is a smaller job than a run towards Ripon, under 10 miles away, so tell us roughly how far it went.
When our technicians get there in Bilton, what occurs?
Our van comes to the car anywhere it stopped — your own driveway, beside Biltonn Community Centre, or by Richard Taylor Church of England Primary School. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so we ask. No one sets off until you have had the quote over the phone.
Next: draining, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Not like petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away by itself. That is why it counts more. The filter cleaned or, where needed, replaced; fresh diesel in; and then a check of the vehicle. Then our engineers start the engine and check it runs smoothly before leaving.
If the motor hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Nothing upfront; you settle up on the day. At the end, a VAT invoice and a report from the engineer go to you for the insurer. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it is worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Bilton and where it is
Bilton is a suburban area in North Yorkshire, situated approximately 8.8 miles from the city of Ripon and 182.5 miles from London. Bilton lies inland at an elevation of around 98 metres, characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock. Bilton forms part of a larger residential area that includes nearby Old Bilton, New Park, and Knox. Bilton has a population of around 9206 residents.
Bilton and North Yorkshire: AdBlue drains across the area
Bilton is a residential suburb, and our teams that cover it also work the towns around it, New Park and Knox among them, across the HG postcode area. Quickest of all: quote a HG1 4 postcode for our van.
Your car remains put. Wherever it stands — beside Saint John the Evangelist, in a lay-by en route to Bilton Cricket Club, at home — that is where it gets cleared. Guessing doesn't help behind Bilton and Woodfield Community Library, close to a boundary, or anywhere hard to pin down; ring and check.
Bilton motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you pour. Still AdBlue in the diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it stands, anywhere across North Yorkshire: keep the car off then call 0333 366 0103.