AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Birchencliffe: Why It Occurs and How to Stop It
Pause reading for a moment if the diesel tank already holds AdBlue in it: ignition off, engine off, then phone 0333 366 0103. A drain plus a full flush, done right where the vehicle sits in Birchencliffe, is usually all it needs if caught before the engine runs. Not happened yet? Further down, the rest of the page explains the why it occurs and the how to prevent it for good.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel car
Plenty of newer diesels around Norwood Park, like those in Birchencliffe, run on two liquids; the engine takes just your diesel. Your exhaust, not your motor, is where AdBlue ends up: sprayed into the fumes to clean it, from its own tank.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Under one flap, side by side: that's the arrangement on a lot of vehicles. On others, AdBlue's filler sits beneath the bonnet or in your boot instead. Diesel goes in on every forecourt call-out, week in, week out. Rarely topped up, AdBlue usually goes in from a bottle, poured by someone who has to stop and think what filler it needs. That gap is where the error lives.
Birchencliffe: how AdBlue in the diesel tank happens
Three things tend to line up, and carelessness is seldom one of them.
To start with, the warning. Low AdBlue triggers a warning from the car, and running out leads to limp mode — hence a hurried top-up, perhaps before work off Birchencliffe Hill Road, perhaps at Cavalry Arms on the way home after work.
The old car's filler is where the hand reaches — but a rental car, a new vehicle or a company car keeps the fillers somewhere else. That's a second thing: a new motor.
A spout-topped bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after started, carries on. Prince Royd or the middle of Birchencliffe: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Birchencliffe or a drive over in Edgerton. A few seconds, no more.
- Blue and lettering: an AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap normally does not. Go by the cap, not its position.
- The size. On plenty of motors the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside your fuel flap: many vehicles have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- In your boot or under the bonnet: that is where the filler is if it's not by the diesel cap, and the handbook tells you which.
- The previous driver knows. Ask when you collect a rental or fleet car — at Huddersfield's car park, perhaps — rather than when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever in West Yorkshire that is.
- Park then switch off. Not on a slope, not with the motor running, and not in a rush on the side of Burn Road.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, check the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud as unscrewing it. It sounds daft. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Gently is best, through the bottle's own spout, until it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap was never came off.
Spot at step two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop just there. Stage five is off limits.
Put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Birchencliffe already?
Then the order of things is short. Don't start your motor. Leave the ignition off too, because on plenty of diesels switching it on by itself starts the pump. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, because AdBlue settles to the bottom rather than blending — and that is where your fuel is pulled from.
The attendants at The co-operative, Esso or another forecourt will normally help to push your car clear when asked. If you're on your own driveway in Birchencliffe, leave it where it sits.
Already started? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. On the M62, under a mile from Birchencliffe, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Bradford, under 10 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Birchencliffe.
Birchencliffe: what occurs when our technicians arrive
Our engineers come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Lindley Church of England Infant School, near St Phillips Community Centre or on your own drive. Both the work and the price depend on three replies — what liquid, what quantity, and if it has run — so we ask. The quote is given over the phone, ahead of any van leaving.
Emptying that tank comes next, then a thorough flush of the fuel system. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and none of that clears away unaided. Hence it counts more. The fuel filter is cleaned, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the car is tested. Then we fire it up and check it runs correctly before we leave.
Unrun cars mostly mean a half-hour job from arrival. The kit is fine on a busy forecourt, and quiet enough for a driveway after dark. You pay on the day, with nothing upfront, and get a VAT invoice and an engineer report for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; plenty include cover for misfuelling.
About Birchencliffe itself
Birchencliffe is a suburban area in West Yorkshire, situated approximately 9 miles north of Bradford and 165 miles north of London. Birchencliffe sits at an elevation of 182 metres, surrounded by nearby places such as Prince Royd, Ainley Top, and Lindley. Birchencliffe is characterised by its predominantly semi-detached housing stock, which reflects the typical residential development of the region. Birchencliffe has a population of around 4308 people, making it a small but distinct community within the wider area.
AdBlue drains round Birchencliffe, and West Yorkshire beyond
As a residential suburb, Birchencliffe has the same vans as surrounding areas — Ainley Top, Lindley — all the way through HD postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Fastest of all: quote a HD3 3 postcode for our van.
No need to shift the vehicle. Anywhere it sits — beside St Philip the Apostle, in a lay-by en route to Fern Lea Recreation Ground, on a drive — that's where it is drained. Tricky to pin down, like the back of Lindley Methodist Church? Close to a county line? Checking beats assuming, so phone.
For Birchencliffe drivers, the short version
Pour nothing until you have read the cap. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can empty it where it is, wherever in West Yorkshire: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.