AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Birchwood Park: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
AdBlue already in the diesel tank? Then put this page down for now, keep the ignition and motor off, then ring 0333 366 0103. Normally, if the motor has not run, it's drained and thoroughly rinsed where your car sits around Birchwood Park. The remainder of this page explains why it occurs and how to ensure it does not — handy if you are reading ahead of time.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
No single liquid but two: that is how many newer diesels near Birchwood Park and Birchwood run, with diesel feeding the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to clean it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank comes with one filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in the boot or under the bonnet; plenty more have both side by side under one flap. The diesel side is topped up at the pump all the time. Much less regularly, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The error lives in that gap.
How AdBlue in your diesel tank takes place around Birchwood Park
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things line up.
Haste comes from the warning. The vehicle warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank puts the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a driveway off Faraday Street, or heading home in the car park outside Turf & Feather.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new car or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle meets no obstacle at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. So the tip, after begun, carries on. The same few seconds settle it, in the middle of Birchwood Park or out in Risley.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Whether a Birchwood Park forecourt or a drive over in Locking Stumps, take a few seconds over these before anything goes in.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is frequently blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally is not. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Many cars fit AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on many motors. Check for it.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by the diesel cap, it is in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with 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 at Birchwood.
Keeping AdBlue out of the diesel tank when you top up
A routine for the day the light comes on, wherever across Cheshire that is.
- Not in a rush on the side of Maxwell Street, not on a slope, not with the motor running: park then switch off first.
- Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew the cap, after finding the AdBlue filler and read it. Silly, perhaps, but it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. When both sit under a flap, confirm it is closed before lifting the bottle.
- Finish when that tank fills or the bottle is empty; until then, tip slowly using the built-in spout.
- Shut the cap, then check once more — making sure your diesel filler remained closed the whole time. Only then, start the car.
If at stage two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Never carry on to step five.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank around Birchwood Park?
Short list, then. First: the motor remains unstarted. On many diesels the ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so don't switch the vehicle on. AdBlue does not mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
If you're on a forecourt, whether it's the BP or the Asda, ask the attendants to help push your car clear of the petrol pump. Your own driveway in Birchwood Park is the place it should stay.
Already run? Pull over once it is safe, then turn off. Come off the M62 — under a mile out of Birchwood Park — at the first exit. Tell us about how far it went: a run towards Salford, under 15 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Birchwood Park.
Birchwood Park: what happens when our technicians get there
The van comes to your car wherever it stopped — your own driveway, near Steel Polo, or outside Locking Stumps Community Primary School. Which liquid went in, the quantity, and if it ran: we ask because the answers set the work and quote. You get that quote by phone, before anybody sets off.
Your system is then cleaned thoroughly, after the tank is emptied. Not like petrol, AdBlue leaves crystals and attacks certain fuel-system metals, and neither washes away unaided. That is why it counts more. After your filter is cleaned — or renewed, where needed — clean diesel is added, and then the vehicle gets tested. The engine is started next and tested to make sure it runs properly, all before our technicians go.
Using pumps safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night, most jobs in which the engine has not run take roughly half an hour once our technicians arrive. The insurer usually wants the engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no money upfront. It's worth checking your policy while we travel to you: misfuelling cover is included with plenty of policies.
About Birchwood Park
Birchwood Park is a small suburban area in Cheshire, situated inland at an elevation of around 24 metres. Birchwood Park lies near the towns of Risley and Gorse Covert, and is close to the Birchwood Centre. Birchwood Park is characterized by its predominantly terraced housing stock, and is located approximately 10 miles from Salford.
AdBlue drains round Birchwood Park, and Cheshire beyond
As a residential suburb, Birchwood Park shares its vans nearby areas — Gorse Covert, Birchwood Centre — right through WA postcodes and the surrounding area beyond. Our van reaches you fastest with a postcode starting WA3 6.
The vehicle stays put. A drive, a lay-by on the way to Glover Road Roundabout, a side street near a street just off the centre: we drain the car where it stands. If you are near a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of Birchwood Town Council, ring and ask instead of assuming.
For Birchwood Park drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; then, the pour. AdBlue in the diesel tank regardless? Leave the vehicle off and call 0333 366 0103; Petrol in Diesel drains it where it stands, across Cheshire.