--- title: Black Banks: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank, Explained canonical: https://www.petrolinadieselcar.co.uk/adblue-in-diesel/black-banks-durham/ location: Black Banks county: Durham latitude: 54.506960 longitude: -1.545930 service: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank updated: 2026-10-20 --- # AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Black Banks: How It Happens and How to Prevent It Leave the motor and ignition off and phone 0333 366 0103 now — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if your motor has not turned, it's drained and thoroughly flushed where your car is around Black Banks. Here before the event? In that case what follows explains how it happens and how to prevent it happening at all. ## Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel motor Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels around Black Banks and Darlington run, with diesel feeding the engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust gas to clean it. Each tank comes with a filler of its own. Some cars keep the AdBlue filler in your boot or under the bonnet; a lot more place both together under one flap. At the petrol pump, your diesel side gets filled constantly. The AdBlue side is topped up far less commonly, normally from a bottle, and normally by a person who has to stop and think where it goes. The error lives in that gap. ## AdBlue in your diesel tank in Black Banks: how it occurs Rarely is it carelessness: normally three things line up. On a drive off Railway Cottages before work, or in the car park outside Skerne Park Pub heading home: that is where the rushed top-up takes place. Why the rush? As AdBlue runs low the vehicle tells you, and once it's gone, limp mode kicks in. Then, your hand reaches for the cap it would have used on the old car — since a hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't. No part halts the tip after it has started, because a bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as readily as an AdBlue one. The bottle fits. Skerne Park or the heart of Black Banks: it is the same few seconds either way. ## Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel? A couple of seconds is all these take — so run through them before you pour anything, on a drive in Hurworth Place or a forecourt in Black Banks. - Colour and lettering: an AdBlue cap is often blue, or says "AdBlue", where a diesel cap usually doesn't. Trust the cap, not its position. - On many motors, the size tells: AdBlue has the smaller filler neck. - A label inside your fuel flap often shows which fuel goes where, on plenty of vehicles. Look for it. - The handbook. If the filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which. - The person who drove it last. On a hire or company car collected from somewhere like the car park outside Darlington, ask before you leave, not when the light comes on. ## Topping up AdBlue without it reaching your diesel tank On the day the light appears — wherever you are in Durham — a simple routine to use. - Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of A66. - Daft as it sounds, speaking "AdBlue" aloud while you unscrew the cap does the trick — once you've found the filler and read it. - If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on. - Stop once that tank is topped up or the bottle runs dry; before that, tip slowly through the own spout. - Close the cap and check once more. Make sure the diesel cap was never opened. Only then start your car. Stop there if you find, at stage two or three, that you have already poured into your diesel side. Don't carry on to step five. ## AdBlue in the diesel tank already, in Black Banks? Don't start your engine: that's where the short order of things begins. On plenty of diesels your ignition alone runs the fuel pump, so do not switch the vehicle on. Thinning it with more diesel won't work, since AdBlue sinks to the bottom rather than mixing — and that is where the fuel is pulled from. The staff at Esso, Sainsbury's or another forecourt will normally lend a hand pushing the car away when you ask. On your own drive around Black Banks? So the car stays where it is. Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if your engine has already run. On the A66(M), under 3 miles from Black Banks, that means the next exit. Tell us roughly how far it went: a run towards Durham, under 25 miles away, is a bigger job than a short hop across Black Banks. ## When we turn up around Black Banks, what occurs? Outside Skerne Park Academy, near St Columba or on your own driveway: wherever the car has stopped, our technicians come to it. Those answers decide the work and the price, so we ask what went in, roughly how much, and if it has run. The quote comes over the phone, ahead of any van leaving. Then your tank is cleared and the system cleaned thoroughly. AdBlue crystallises and is corrosive to some of the metals in a fuel system, so it does not wash out on its own — which is why that counts more with AdBlue than with petrol. Once the filter is cleaned — or replaced, where needed — clean diesel goes in, and finally your car gets tested. Next we start it and confirm it runs properly before we go. With pumps fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough for use outside a house at night, most jobs where your engine has not run need roughly half an hour once we are there. The insurer usually wants an engineer's report and the VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment comes on the day, with no deposit. It's worth checking your insurance as the van travels to you: misfuelling cover comes with plenty of policies. ## About Black Banks, for a moment Black Banks is a locality situated on the riverside in County Durham, with an elevation of 44 metres above sea level. Black Banks lies approximately 18.8 miles from the city of Durham and is surrounded by nearby places such as Skerne Park and Firth Moor. Black Banks has a population of around 756 people and predominantly consists of semi-detached housing. Black Banks is located in the North East region of England, about 215.5 miles from London. ## AdBlue drains around Black Banks, and Durham beyond Firth Moor and Bank Top are among the places near Black Banks, a small village, that the same vans cover, over DL postcodes. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting DL2 1. Your car doesn't need to shift. Anywhere it sits — near Fowler Monument, on a layby en route to South Park, at home — that's where it gets emptied. If you're close to a border, or somewhere hard to describe like the back of South Park Stone, ring and ask rather than assuming. ## In short, for Black Banks people First, the cap; after that, the tip. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it where it stands, anywhere around Durham: switch it off and call 0333 366 0103.